Simmerdim by Nat Hall

we have aligned to sun & moon,
.........what does it mean to the shalder?

bright calishang,

cockiloorie instead of ice,
linties & waap,
feverish song of the blackbird,
wings slashing through a lavish sky,
patchworks of matrimonial cotton grass
where men and birds share same hillsides, where peat turns into pyramids.

ever ending,
over-saturated sense of life –
flick of feathers, twisting below this industrious horizon,
fishermen, birds, as if tradition never dies…
that perpetual canvas of blue in defiance to hands of time,
like a gigantic bonfire, we look through the eye of the sun.


Nat Hall, Shetland, UK


Poet’s notes on Shetlan wirds:


simmerdim = nightless sky associated with the summer solstice
shalder = oystercatcher
calishang = boisterous commotion
cockiloorie = daisy
linties = twites
waap = curlew

Spring Light on Bressay by Nat Hall

Sign,
signal,
beam of change,
as if low cloud lost a battle,
grey of the ghost looks so aghast,
it’s got to shift, shoooooo through the shaft –
shackled to the ship of winter…
Shambolic as rollers & tides,
tired of lingering so long onto our hills & TV masts,
ointing every call of shalders, sleeping petals inside sepals.

Bio-rhythm in equinox,
as sun & moon rock onto scales,
through my window on the fourth floor,
I imagine earthly contours, familiar shapes freed from sky lace
and feel water filling our Sound, pull of our faithful satellite –
blue overwashing bridal dress, fresh epidermis of her skin,
eager to unveil to a sun her every charm through sighs & dreams.

There,
on the wings of each black back,
it is written.

Nat Hall, Shetland, UK