Hugh Mitchell

No fish-merchant at the street's end now
'Palamut, palamut' no more
even the simit-seller walks on silent feet
the snow descends in feathered lumps
...

Good morning Mr Magpie
alone again, like me
I greet you then I bless myself
and hope that I shall see
...

This time I nearly didn't know you, Gaia,
elegant dancer; slow smiler
the children, of course, they knew you from the start,
knew you and loved you -
...

The germ of an idea came to me
Watching a botanist on my TV
He said a species could be recognized
as great by how much world it colonized
...

Down at the bottom of the world
amongst the snow and sleet
stands a lonely Emperor penguin
with an egg upon his feet.
...

A pair of herons flying from a ditch
wheeled low and elegant over the road
one flew too low - a sudden car
ended her gracious flight
...

Last night I had a dream of Ireland's Eye
wind-ruffled island of my childhood hour
- waves, restless seaweed, cliffs and gull-filled sky
the ruined church, the ever-watchful tower.
...

Dripping in rain at the year's end
an elegant old town - too large for those who've settled here
they move in dreams over the scrubby grass
pushing through memories along the square.
...

This was a man - small man, Dutch man; small in a land of giants
a man who earned respect from all
This was a man who said,
'I may not live to see my birthday - let's hold the party early! '
...

Last winter - did we have snow?
Don't really know
I suppose so.
One year, I know
...

All my life, it seems to me
(but more especially latterly)
I have sought needles of significance
in haystacks of irrelevance.
...

Bright days in Brighton
Dull days in Hull
Windy days in Windscale
and on the Isle of Mull.
...

I'm wet and I'm wiggly
I'm slimy and squiggly
I live in the weeds
I swim through the reeds
...

The desert is a strange old place
Just rocks and sand and sky
and big black birds with hooky beaks
that hover way up high
...

Hot chocolate, hot sun,
toasted sandwich, new-baked bun.
Hot water bottle on my knee,
hot dog and steaming tea.
...

Waiting by the Bosphorus
for my daily bus
I saw the sun rise over Asia
watched the waves
...

I remember you
you were in my class once
you sat at the front
and ate a secret biscuit
...

Fiddling in deep pockets for lost keys
my fingers smudged with grease
again I bind my rusty bike
with rusty chain and rusty lock -
...

Oh I am a fisherman
and I fish in Emirgan
...

Last night by way of celebration, I
drank three Trappists and now I'm asking why.
...