Haunted, by a recurring memory,
Suffocating, where gladioli grow,
Gaunt, with grief, heart stilled, ever passionless,
Those dream-filled nights, devoid of charity,
Make of slumber a fierce, eternal foe,
With you, my love, a bride of bitterness.
Thus, spectral songs echo after last light,
Where hurtful remembrance always occurs,
Oft musing on the mourner’s useless tears,
Regardless of his tragic loss, his plight –
Hungering to end an enduring curse;
Here, sorrow may make skeletons of years.

You, ensheathed within that cassock of clay,
I, fleshing the ebbtide of yesterday.

 

© Sam Gilliland.

Residing in Scotland, Sam Gilliland is a champion of Lallans (the Scottish language) poetry and a recipient of Sangschaw’s prestigious MacDiarmid Tassie. With three previous collections of poetry published his work in Scots includes A Rickle O Banes (Penny Wheep Press). Founder/Secretary of Ayrshire Writers & Artists Society the organisation became the home of The Scottish International Open Poetry Competition, to which he devoted twenty eight years of his life as co-administrator and judge.

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10 Responses

    • Sam Gilliland

      James, I already know of your powerful influence upon contemporary poetry, and delighted that you are continuing a path we both seem to have tread upon. Aye & aye, Sam.

      Reply
  2. Leo Yankevich

    You are, Mr Gilliland, a poet with a unique voice and style, a master of unobtrusive yet compelling metre and rhyme. Yet again you have given us another gem.

    Reply
    • Sam Gilliland

      Leo, I suspect you, too, are a poet of imagination and refined taste. Aye & aye, Sam.

      Reply
    • Sam Gilliland

      Thank you, Ram. May you continue with your own work uppermost in mind. Aye & aye, Sam.

      Reply
    • Sam Gilliland

      David, I am delighted that my poem gave you joy, which, frankly, is the one real reason one strives for in our elegant art. Aye & aye, Sam.

      Reply
    • Sam Gilliland

      David, I thank you and wish you a prosperous and literary Xmas as well as a delightful New Year! Aye & aye, Sam.

      Reply

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