THERE is an elegiac feeling about many of the poems in Walter Perrie’s new pamphlet Vigils (Fras Publications, £5) but also reflectiveness, lyricism, and affirmation of the power of love. Here is a sample of his writing.

SONNET: ELEGY FOR ORPHEUS

The Earth is inconsolable

and from the trees the wind

picks listlessly dry leaves a while,

humming itself a kind

of fretful or distracted tune

until the waiting crowd

of worlds needles a golden rune

into his dusking shroud.

Morning chafes what the dark has chilled.

A little sun dries our faces,

raising spirits, till Earth is filled

with his music, every place is

brighter than the songs he stilled

and he is a light, alive in embraces.