Hazy days captured in verse

The recent days that feel like summer has properly arrived – albeit still precious few – have inspired a poetic contribution of the timeless variety from the pen of Stanley Gordon.

In recent months the Newport-on-Tay dweller has kindly supplied Craigie on an occasional basis with a series of verses he composed more than three decades ago, and his latest timely offering is very much a seasonal effort, entitled A Lowland Summer.

Written around 1990, Stanley says it represents his penultimate offering from the realms of a stash of long-forgotten poems rediscovered not so long ago in an old suitcase at his Albert Crescent home.

He explains: “I wrote it after noticing that the foxgloves were spectacular in both height and variety of colours that year. They added a special enchantment to ‘the den’.

“‘Foxgloves, tall as hollyhocks’ passed

through my mind and made me think of Edith Sitwell’s verses and William Walton’s accompanying music in their entertainment Façade. So, in homage – with apologies – to both poet and composer, this is my effort.”

A Lowland Summer by Stanley Gordon...

“Foxgloves, tall as hollyhocks “Enchant the Lowland glades and streams, “Where ferns and mosses cling to rocks “In hues from pale to darkest greens “And toadstools form fairy rings “Amongst last Autumn’s fallen leaves, “Whilst dragonflies with jewelled wings “Hover on a gentle zephyr breeze.

“Honeysuckle, golden as satyr’s hair, “With headband of ivy, sparkling green, “Scents the sun beamed, balmy air.

“As bees gather pollen for their Queen “Amid poppies painting grasses red “On bankings of silver-reeded ponds “Where gossamer drifts on silken threads “And dewdrops kiss the fern fronds.

“Bindweed embraces posts and hedges, “White translucent trumpets, pink-fluted bells

“Beside the forest’s meadowed edges “Where corn blows in golden sea-wave swells.

“As the sun begins to set

“And darkness draws her mantle tight, “Trees and hills become silhouette, “Black in the misted moonbeams’ light.”