A REMINDER, as brief as charming, in these dark autumnal days, that spring lies ahead.

Katrina Porteous was born in Scotland and has lived on the Northumberland coast for more than a quarter of a century. Her new collection, Two Countries (Bloodaxe Books, £12), explores "debatable lands" of both the geographical and human variety.

ROADS OUT OF NOWHERE

These three are sorcerers, conjuring

Roads out of nowhere:

Tommy of White Lea, high on his tractor,

Drawing a gull-road over the loam;

The Julie-Ann, with her box of blue lobsters,

Ploughing behind her a white road of foam;

And high above Blackhall banks, the skylark,

Spooling his thread,

Undoing the dark roads under the sea, and freeing

Summer ahead.