Norman MacCaig's 'A Man In Assynt'

[vapid ness]

Hi Folks,

There's an mp3 of Norman MacCaig reading his poem @A Man In Assynt' at 
http://redlightray.com/Audio/A%20Man%20In%20Assynt.mp3

Sorry for not inseting it as a link, but it's crashed everything twice trying to out it in as a link.

A few lines;

Who owns this landscape?
has owning anything to do with love?
For it and I have a love-affair, so nearly human
we even have quarrels. —
When I intrude too confidently
it rebuffs me with a wind like a hand
or puts in my way
a quaking bog or a loch 
where no loch should be. Or I turn stonily
away, refusing to notice
the rouged rocks, the mascara
under a dripping ledge, even
the tossed, the stony limbs waiting.

I can't pretend
it gets sick for me in my absence,
though I get
sick for it. Yet I love it
with special gratitude, since
it sends me no letters, is never
jealous and, expecting nothing
from me, gets nothing but
cigarette packets and footprints.

Who owns this landscape? — 
The millionaire who bought it or
the poacher staggering downhill in the early morning
with a deer on his back?

Who possesses this landscape? —
The man who bought it or
I who am possessed by it?



Cheers,

V



      
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