Poem: The View (first published in Northwords magazine, Scotland, 1995)

“It’s so beautiful here,” I told

the man I was staying with on that

island in the North of Scotland.

“What’s beautiful about it?” he

asked, pouring me another dram.

“Everything,” I said. “Just look at

the view!”

“What view?” he said. “There’s no

view. There’s only mountains and

heather and trees and water.”

When I went back to the city I

looked at it for the first time.