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.