Sheena Blackhall Poems

At the Photographer's
Roll up, roll up an watch the birdie!
Queen Victoria, Munshi, Tsar
Weir yer kilt, yer braws, yer gee-gaws
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Gear
Ma bairnhood hame wis young wi Queen Victoria
I grew up wi ma granma's auncient gear
A lowe that spirkit reid-flamed in the hairth
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Tam O'Bedlam
Doric Owersett of an anonymous lyric, discovered in a commonplace book of about 1620.

Frae the hag an hungeret trowie, that tae torn cloots wid teir ye,
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There is a cornfield ploughed into my brain
No wind, nor sleety gale wears it away

What fails with time, glass, clocks, health, flowers
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Blessings be on drops of dew
Blessings be on rainbow's hue
Blessings be on mouse and snail
Blessings be on bird and sail
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In Faldy's Wood

The little tree in Faldy's wood
Holds up its waving arms
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To make love without love is easy
Physical jerks and spasms
Cracking a match to flame
Like a puppet propelled by lust
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After a dish of porridge, a milky coffee,
The sun being out for once
I took a walk in the woods beside the river
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The village of Eyam in Middleton Dale
Looks over the Derwent down in the vale
Along Hope Valley, that grassy glade
Where Viccars, the tailor plied his trade
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Chatsworth Estate
In an airy corridor
Duchess Georgina laughs from a painting
A grand society beauty broken
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