AS neatly crafted as the drystane dykes of south-west Scotland which it describes, this poem by Andrew Greig was first published by Canongate.
IN GALLOWAY
In Galloway the drystane dykes that curl
like smoke over the shoulder of the hill
are built with holes
through which sky shows and spindrift birls,
so the wind is baffled but not barred
lest drifting snow smoors a sheltering herd.
There is an art in framing holes
and in the space between the stones.
Structures pared to the bone –
the line that pleases by what’s not there
or drydykes laced across the whirling air.
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