Early Morning Cigarette – Callander 2011
Standing outside the Dreadnought Hotel,
mist is hanging between Earth and tips of Craigs,
and the just discernable trees with pointy fingers.
In a hazy-blue sky
clouds are like tiny pink petals of roses.
A lady is smoking – laboriously,
she tells me, she fell heavily onto
the pavement the night before.
Her lower teeth are loose.
I point to the beauty and mystery all
around us – she agrees.
I tell her how I had heard
the night before, an owl hooting
in the stillness.
Inappropriate perhaps?
Later, I know
I will hear, beauty, mystery, laughter;
in Sally and Ian’s bookshop,
as many poets read their work.
But for now we smile;
and I return to the breakfast-dining room.
Maureen Weldon
First published on Sally Evans’ blog 2011
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I am so pleased to have my poem included on the St Anza’s poetry map, thank you. And particularly because the poem is about Callander and the wonderful Poetry Scotland Callander Poetry Weekend.
Atmospheric and anecdotal – what a lovely poem! Callander comes over as a place of great charm and I can’t wait to attend the poetry festival there this year.