Flip Side

That fine line

Between seeing people

And being entirely lonely

That small immeasurable distance

Between a welcome hug

And a goodbye kiss

Those careful, yet harsh words

Contrasting love

With friendship

Those difficult looks

Between may I join you

And please stay away

Then the happiness

In bright sunshine

Or incessant pouring rain

Then the joy

In peaceful mind

Or ever present mind

Your Space

Six weeks of full-on weather

No ferries

No aeroplanes

No food deliveries

No provisions landed

Six weeks of full-on sun

Endless football

Endless streams of sunlight

Endless lager beer

Endless vacations

Six weeks of your four thousand

You do the maths

You do the contemplation

You work out the hours of stillness

You do the truth

Cut Your Cloth

After a while I return

Fairly quickly, from determining

That the Fair Isles are not for me

Although now more understanding 

Of the difficulty

To order the handmade pullover

These days it is the cruise ships

Whose needs are met first and foremost

They are the regular sources of income

And although they are here today

And gone tomorrow

That is no bad thing; to feed

The instantly gratified well-off clientele

No bickering, no bartering, and

Never, ever, is anything sent back

In Place Of God

It is you that are

Will it, say it

I am, I am, I am

It is you

Who walks beside the stream

It is you

Who sits on the bench to ponder

It is you

Who watches the leaves on the tree

Become disconnected

Before floating to the ground

That it is you

Let that give you solace

Let that give you strength

Let that give you a sense of direction

You, you who are your own faith

There is no other force

Nothing mythical, biblical

Or otherwise

But there is you

You are, you are, you are

Awareness Of A Longer Pause

My midday garden meditation

Is quietly interrupted

The iPad has overheated

It needs to cool down before I can carry on

The screen says Emergency, with exclamation mark

Though I think that is a slight exaggeration

Indeed, what it actually means

Is that for a short while

I meditated without any spoken word guidance

Then I took up my paper notebook and pencil

To write out these few words

Words for my own personal record of the silence

Indeed a record, of my personal reaction

To the Emergency, which of course

Had been of my own making

For it was I who placed the iPad on the seat

In the direct glare of the extreme heat

Of the sun which we are witnessing at the moment