Norman MacCaig's images glitter with originality and wit in this eyewitness account from June 1981.

It can be found in the fine posthumous compendium of his poems, edited by his son Ewen and published by Polygon.

SUMMER IDYLL

Under a ferocious snowfall

of gulls and fulmars

a corner of the bay is simmering

with herring fry.

Into them slice

Assyrian hosts

of mackerel.

Sweet day, so cool, so calm, so bright. . .

Three porpoises pronounce

three puffs and cavalry charge

into the Assyrians.

Clouds lisp across the sky in a trance of silence.

Farther out, a commando of killer whales

grin and leap.

They're setting their ambush

for the cavalry.

And in the gentle West

a ladylike sunset

swoons

on the chaise-longue

of the Hebrides.