Stuart B Campbell, a member of Scottish PEN, lives in Portsoy on the Moray Firth. He is regularly published in UK literary journals, and his most recent poetry collection is 'The Stone Operation' (Dionysia Press 2008); a fourth collection is currently under consideration. He is presently working on a commission to contribute poetry for a book on Scotland's mountain areas.
Psalm-writer
It's when you go to the brink
of the burn and plunge
your hand in to the depth
of your arm; it's mind-numbing
cold to begin with, as
if that part of you has become
disconnected,
drifting and
you wait
till you begin to get the feeling
back and you grope unseeing.
You don't know quite what
it will be but you sense it, then
there's the touch.
It's gazelle-smooth, hawk-steady;
it's dancer-poise balanced;
snow-crystal white,
blood-red, maybe lion-skin
coloured; hard
as the midday sun and sits
weighted and waiting to whistle
clear through the air, shattering
the silence. It's the one;
unequivocal and fitting :
grasp it before it slips
through your fingers.
Hold it before your eyes
and you know it's right:
in your hands, a giant-killer.
Then you plunge in again, searching
for the next word
that will do for tyranny.
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