Poetry – Translated poems & list of publications
Translated Poems
Below are English translations of some of my Gaelic poems. They may give some idea of the originals, which can be viewed by following the Gàidhlig links.
In the Moor
One day as I
sat quietly,
I saw the
red road
rising from the blue moor
and disappearing without trace.
Who will
take the road
repaying life from blood
to the top of the far shoulder
beyond the pale glen of the word.
(Below, the
sea was a witness
with its faint mocking laughter –
pathless and wordless,
level its surface and song).
But I wanted
the road
that will perhaps break the heart,
and jauntily I set off,
seeing the dust and soil,
kissing the dirt in my
hand –
footsteps of bards long
gone.
And a truth
dawned on me
amidst the stillness of words –
poetry isn’t saying but being.
from Eileanan/Islands
1980
Islands
Islands rise
from the sea, 
their foundations hidden
in ancient experiences.
Islands are
in and out of time,
guides for the wanderer,
or submerged in time long gone.
Some are
well established,
high and dark in the flood.
No storm
will affect their well-formed front.
Some in lava
and sulphurous grief,
sea children of torn heart.
And others,
icebergs, coldly moving in the water.
Some will
stand silent,
lonely – inwardly as rock –
unassuming in the heat of the
day.
And there is
an island in the dusk,
assured, dark, and
repelling,
its foundations in a fading time.
And this
island in the sunset,
island watching another island.
You decide
your own form.
From Eileanan/Islands, 1980
My Village
Tonight
You are my
village tonight, 
remarkable your lights,
warm glow in the
moor’s bleakness.
High above Shore
Street
your other streets
rise –
streets like a soft carpet –
and my hands
will feel your paths
and my heart
your heart.
Woodland and tree between the
ways,
they will rise
on the summits
and the knolls
will be soft
with moss
and the moss
with dew.
You are the
resplendent village,
little village by
the wave,
secret village of
my love,
tidal village and
earth village,
village of the soft breasts,
village that will ease from
self
and keep us
folded as one.
When you lift
your summer skirt
I will dance on your
meadow,
and we will
ascend the steps
up from the
edge of the
sea
until we are
above the world,
and I see you
lying below me
like a diamond in the kyle.
From Bailtean/Bailtean
1987
Between Law and Laughter
This poem
unashamedly
walks the borderland between law and
laughter,
growing like a tree in the
light of the sun, 
the leaves dance wherever they
like,
the trunk grows where it must:
growing in the gap between
law and freedom
aware that freedom is only:
those laws hidden from man.
And at last
the conclusion
that a veil of unknowing covers our
eyes.
from A’ Càradh
an Rathaid/Mending the Road, 1988
Over the Threshold
I go over the
threshold 
joyfully, elated
because I have seen a little gleam
of sunshine through
the curtains.
I’m going on a journey,
doubtful, fearful,
because I’m not
sure what’s ahead
or behind me
although I did see a golden gleam
on the everlasting mountain.
O soft idols of
the pillow!
I take my leave
of you
joyfully, with doubt, with tears,
because I have been wrong for so long,
for the spendthrift days,
for the warm, deceitful
bedcovers.
O, all-seeing heart!
O, deceiving, soiled heart
you are killed
with sacrifices,
flayed by the
knife of the morning!
But go over
the threshold, don’t look back
to the warm,
comfortable home,
or to the
weathertight walls.
You are out
in the light;
the mountains are
shouting;
the marvellous wilderness
is before you;
the eternal stars
are spraying you with dew,
stretched out with the endless
plain.
O marvel! O elation! O unending miracle!
From Saoghal Ùr/New
World, 2003
The
Just Feather
The
shudder of horse, they come
from the bounds of the
kingdom
with a thrum on the earth
nearer they come,
pandemonium of hooves
thunder and rumble
as in a dream,
humanity’s dream,
as would come in a
vision,
a nether god making
from remote depths,
from the ravenous heart.
(Herod
sits in his chamber,
his turbid mind
perturbed,
disturbed by the power of
Rome.)
But
not the stern power of horse
with hazard of hosts,
as in the vision,
threatening terror and fear;
not the pound of their
trampling
tearing the earth
will triumph in the end …
but another dream,
the nails,
the nails through the
palms,
the feeble, holy thing
yielding
from pity to the cruel;
Rome
and the Innocent,
and in the end,
the just feather will
fell the horse,
as love is the ground,
love and justice –
and the clamour will cease.
from The Two Sides of the Pass / Dà Thaobh a’ Bhealaich,
2009
Twelve
Verses for a House
Cement blocks,
windows
and red roof tiles –
an elegant stub in the
ground.
Keeper of secrets,
sacred magnet
to which regard
returns.
Amused night joy,
who keeps laughter
stored under rafters.
You welcome the sun
enchain the light;
yellow flowers in the
window.
Or place of shadow;
grief and extremity
soil the walls.
Soul symbol – under
the joists
id; ego itself on a
high
superego in bed.
Out and out drunk,
throws things,
your slates shake,
cans blow.
Eaves harvester of
birds,
yearly they return;
protector of brood.
A ship tears the sky,
white clouds nibble
the chimney masts.
A boat under sail,
four yellow masts
stretch the red sails.
A door to quietness
after rose fades:
listen to the ebb sough.
The soft sound
distils
short of the cold street;
comfort – listen.
from The Two Sides of the Pass / Dà Thaobh a’ Bhealaich,
2009
PUBLICATIONS
Abbreviations: GO – Gaelic only; BGE – Bilingual, Gaelic/English; BGG – Bilingual, Gaelic/Gaeilge; BGS – Bilingual, Gaelic/Scots
Poetry Collections
Eileanan (Islands),
GO, 1980
Bailtean (Villages), BGE, 1987
A’ Càradh
an Rathaid (Mending the Road), BGG, 1988
A’ Gabhail
Ris (Accepting), GO, 1994
Saoghal Ùr (New/Fresh
World), GO, 2002
Breac-a’-Mhuiltein (Mackerel Sky) selected poems 1974-2006 BGG Coiscéim, Dublin,
2007
Available from www.coisceim.ie
Dà Thaobh a’ Bhealaich/The Two Sides of the Pass, (BGE), Two Ravens Press, 2009 ISBN 978-1-906120-47-4 a co-authored bilingual work with Mark O. Goodwin
Tro Chloich na Sùla (Through the Pupil of the
Eye), GO, 2014
Island Conversion, BGE, 2011, has a 38 poem sequence
Children’s verse
Blasad de Aesop GO Seahorse, Tobermory, 1991
Anthologies (with a substantial number of poems)
An Aghaidh na Sìorraidheachd (In the Face of Eternity) BGE (8 poets) Polygon, Edinburgh, 1991
Scotland o Gael an Lawlander (4 poets) BGS Gairm, Glasgow, 1996
An Tuil
(The Flood) BGE Polygon, Edinburgh,
1999
ANTHOLOGIES/PUBLICATIONS (with one or several poems)
The Pirate of Torloisg Am Muileach, 1980
Air Ghleus 1 Acair, 1989
Somhairle, Dàin is Deilbh Acair, 1991
The Patched Fool Morning Star, 1991
Twenty of the Best Galliard, 1990
Bàrdachd na Roinn-Eòrpa Gairm, 1990
Sruth na Maoile Canongate/Coiscéim, 1993
Writing the Wind New Native Press, 1997
Carmichael’s Book Morning Star, 1997
Another Book to Burn Bootleg Editions, 1998
Celtic Visions Black Buzzard Press, VA, USA
Wish I was Here Pocketbooks, 2000
Atoms of Delight Pocketbooks, 2000
Words of the West Ullapool Text Project, 2000
An Leabhar Mòr PNE, 2002
The EmLit Project Brunell University, 2003
Scotlands Poets & the Nation Carcanet/Poetry Library, 2004
An Guth 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 & 7 Coiscéim, 2003 – 2006
The Little Book of Piping Quotations Piping Scotland, 2004
100 Island Poems Iron Press, 2005
Dreuchd an Fhigheadair Poetry Library/Word Festival
-The Weaver’s Task: a Gaelic Sampler Aberdeen, 2007
mesostic interleaved Edinburgh
University/Morning Star, 2009
These Islands we Sing Birlinn /
Polygon, 2011
Dàin do Shomhairle SPL/CNL, 2011
New Writing Scotland 30 ASLS, 2012
Into the Forest Saraband, 2013
Words from an Island The Skye
Reading Room, 2013
Scotland’s Still Light Luath Press
Ltd, 2014
Struileag: Cladach gu Cladach Polygon, 2015
Poems in Magazines/Journals Gairm;
Lines Review; Cencrastus; Orbis; Poetry
Ireland Review; Comhar; Gairfish; Baragab; An Cànan; New Writing Scotland; Verse; Celtic Visions; Skye
95; Gath; An Guth; Northwords
Now; Poetry Scotland; Chapman