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Poems - Rowena M. Love

The Waverly Oan a Brae

Inspired by a walk alongside the Grey Mare's Tail waterfall in the Lowlands of Scotland, this is a poem about a the last ocean-going paddle steamer in the world, called the Waverley.

Magin’ hearin the Waverley
In a snaw-fed waterfa’!
Hir turbines loodly thumpin -
Ah nivver expecktit that at a’.

The Waverley, oan a brae?
Ah nivver thocht tae fin hir here,
As hikers’ boabble hats
Wave lik weans oan a pier.

Ah nivver thocht hir colours
Wid be sae easy fun
In black stane, reid faces
An snaw oan the grun.

She’s a mindin o childhood -
Doon the watter fur the Fair;
Conjurin fish teas an pokey hats
An haein an affie tear.

Whit wey’s she in ma heid
As Ah sprauchle up the hill?
Ah’m miles awa, an years awa,
Yet Ah’m thinkin oan her still.

Are the Ben folk castin glamours
That cairrie oan the win,
Some clever countra cantrip,
Sae Ah cannae help but grin?

Or mebbe it’s jist the seil,
Risin faster than the tide,
That has me fair remembrin
Early days upoan the Clyde.

First published in Poetry Scotland - Summer 99 Issue

Killiecrankie

The Battle of Killiecrankie in 1689 was a fierce one, between the Highland Jacobite forces under "Bonnie Dundee" and the Williamite Government forces under General Hugh MacKay.

The annual battle has begun:
Blood drenching the trees
With Jacobite wounds.

Winter advances unimpeded;
October has no Farquhar MacRae
To buy it time.

Like weary troops, the leaves drop.
Already, twigs show through
A dwindling canopy:
Dead insects caught in a resin of amber foliage.

The looting rain steals colour
From the fallen,
Leaving only traces of gun-metal grey
And the dark lustreless brown
Of old gore.

But in a hollow,
The ghostly fingerprint
Of a spider’s web drowned in dew
Gives shimmering evidence
That the woodland lives on.

Reinforcements will arrive
With Spring in their step.


Note: Farquhar MacRae was the Jacobites’ lone sniper who hindered the advance of the Williamite army under General Hugh MacKay.

Learn more about the Battle.

About The Writer: Rowena M Love is a freelance Scottish Writer based in the West of Scotland. Her poetry has appeared in The Scots Magazine, Poetry Scotland, Reach Poetry Magazine, Scottish Memories, iota, Psychopoetica, Countryside Tales, Quantum Leap, The Fireside Book, and more. Send email to the writer or visit her website.

All poems above Copyright Rowena M. Love. All Rights Reserved.