POEM OF THE DAY

Quines is the title of Gerda Stevenson’s fascinating new collection of poems “in tribute to women of Scotland,” some of the 68 well known, others undeservedly less so (Luath Press, £9.99). Here is one of the tributes, with a most intriguing title.

THE LIVING MOUNTAIN ADDRESSES A £5 BANKNOTE

Nan Shepherd, born Peterculter, 1893, died Aberdeen, 1981; novelist, poet and writer of non-fiction, lecturer in English at Aberdeen College of Education; her non-fiction work, The Living Mountain, written in 1941 but not published till 1977, describes the Cairngorms; first woman to appear on a Royal Bank of Scotland banknote, 2016.

You cavorted through my corries, capered about my braes, careened between my coiling clouds, played hide-and-seek on my plateau, glinted as you skipped across my ruffled secret loch – a butterfly, I thought – a Silver-studded Blue brought back from extinction; till the wind dropped, and you came to rest, snagged in moss campion – a plastic rectangle pulsing on the tail of a breeze.

I dislike litter, especially your kind – polymer particles that issue in blizzards from careless markets, slip from pockets, won’t perish in rain or melt with snow; though in your case, I’ll make an exception, because you bear her face: the woman who never rushed to my summits, but walked into me, took time to learn my every line – schist, gneiss and granite – and heard my braided voice. You’ve brought her to light again, all I contain, nurture and sustain, held in her steady gaze.