Sunday 4 March 2012

The Sunday Posts 2012



In the garden you walk the way
tall flowers would walk
in the music of Debussy.
The trees are fattening and heavy with blossom.
How slender you are
in their beautiful, podgy circle.

You call to your dog
who's bursting through the undergrowth
like a small black tank
on a tropical island.
He's filling himself with smells.
(A butterfly, crazy with wings,
is trying to go in every direction
at once.)

You stand still and the little dog
trundles flat out across the grass
to your feet. He sits down, panting,
and puts to shame the brightest flower in the garden
with two inches of tongue.

'Seen in the city'
By Norman MacCaig.
1982

Picture - Gitl on a bicycle, Joseph Crawhall.

8 comments:

Twisted Scottish Bastard said...

Nice image.
Both the visual and the one created by MacCaig.


PS Is the new Blogger word verification driving you as mad as it's making me?

Indigo Roth said...

Hey Alistair! Despite the length, there's an almost haiku-esque quality to this. Lovely. Thanks, Indigo

DB Stewart said...

"He's filling himself with smells." Love that. If that's what dogs are meant to do then what are we humans meant to do?

Alistair said...

TSB - Cheers! The Crawhall painting is one i bought as a poster from The Burrel Collection back in the late 80's or early 90's. I really like his style of painting - he was very close with the group knpwn as 'The Glasgow Boys' who painted around Co'path at the turn of the century.

MacCaig almost never fails to get it right in my opinion......

Indigo - Never thought about it that way but I see what you mean....

dbs - Me too. He has the annoying habit of writing things and creating images that you wish you'd done yourself doesn't he?

Jane said...

Lovely - and even better to this soundtrack: http://youtu.be/g1UmOzIzpjs
A bit of Debussy by my uber-talented choir leader Annie Smart!

Alistair said...

Thanks Jane - and a nice track too. Hope the job is going well.

Bovey Belle said...

What a wonderful word-painting. Loved it.

Alistair said...

Hullo BB - Glad you liked it. He's a master isn't he?

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