The moon was out on the old river again tonight. It is hard to resist the click of the shutter…

I think it time to re-post this poem too-

Firth of Clyde

Broad estuary
Flowing coal black
Flecked with the streetlight
Lines of amber combed out by the current
Moving
Yet standing still

The Clyde is running clean now
Rich in all manner of living things
Yet somehow
Sterile

Like the fresh paint
On a mothballed dockyard crane
Masking the memories
Of an age of smoke and steam
Now gone

No more slap of paddles
Or thump of ships moving in the night
No more bulging holds
Of Empire plunder
No more sugar, no more spice

A thousand ships have carried off the morning tide
Past Bute and beyond the Cumbraes
Beckoned by Paddies Milestone
And drowned by Sirens on some distant shore
Now flotsam
Of this mighty River