Scotland’s fishing industry has taken a beating in recent decades. George Bruce, born and bought up in Fraserburgh, was well placed to record the dignity of the men who pursued this most traditional, and sometimes hazardous, of working-life in the north-east.
The portrait comes from Today Tomorrow, Bruce’s Collected Poems, 1933-2000 (Polygon, £14.99, paperback).
THE FISHERMAN
As he comes from one of those small houses
Set within the curve of the low cliff
For a moment he pauses
Foot on step at the low lintel
Before fronting wind and sun.
He carries out from within something of the dark
Concealed by heavy curtain,
Or held within the ship under hatches.
~
Yet with what assurance
The compact body moves,
Head pressed to wind,
His being at an angle
As to anticipate the lurch of earth.
~
Who is he to contain night
And still walk stubborn
Holding the ground with light feet
And with a careless gait?
Perhaps a cataract of light floods,
Perhaps the apostolic flame.
Whatever it may be
The road takes him from us.
Now the pier is his, now the tide.
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