Small Isles Summer Solstice Haikus

Muck

Haunting Snipe whirr past
as I watch the eagle hunt –
raw joy in my step

***
Bird prints in wet sand –
arrows point to the wide sea.
Where am I heading?

***
Swim round Corelag,
my Muck morning ritual –
clear turquoise thoughts

***
Bred just to be shot,
young pheasants follow our steps
like the Pied Piper

***

Rock pools are cloudy –
toxic substrate near fish farm.
Heart gulps at the sight

***

Soundscape is all bird:
Peewit, Skylark, Tern and Snipe –
find my soaring song

***
Gallanach, Port Mor,
Glean Mhartean, Beinn Airean;
machair and meadow

***
Lamb Point at sunset,
angry Arctic Terns dive bomb –
we all protect nests

***
A ewe leads two lambs
across the sweep of white sand –
go first or follow?

***

Rum

Sea eagles from Rum
fly over the Sound to Muck –
no sightings today

***
Feral goats on shore
feasting on rock-draped seaweed;
sun warms both my cheeks

***
Dipping in the burn,
solstice sun long since risen –
wash my mountain mind

***
So many red deer,
births, deaths, movement all studied –
tough life for young trees

***

Fish farm expansion?
Flip chart notes in Kinloch Hall –
Don’t heed the greenwash!

***

Falling in a bog,
softer than in a river –
today I did both

***
Halleval, Harris,
Dibidil and Trollabhal;
gneiss and sandstone

***
From Guirdil bothy
double sunset on Canna –
find my glitter path

***
Heft, heart and courage
fill these wild mountain bothies –
hear my prayer of thanks!

***

From this thrift-specked rock
I see seven more islands,
craggy as my mind

***
Rum has vanished now
in a haze of summer rain;
Eigg following soon

From Kilmory Bay
we gaze out to Loch Coruisk;
sunshine on Elgol

***
Muck looks so tiny
from the high cuillins of Rum
it fits in my hand

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Northwords Now