DUNCAN Ferguson’s equinoctial poem is inspired by Keats’s masterful ode; vivid childhood memories of Portnahaven, Islay, in autumn; and the tales of the old men in the Rinns area, who until the early years of the 20th century had sailed annually to the Ould Lammas Fair at Ballycastle in Antrim to sell their dried fish and purchase various merchandise 
– and, of course, enjoy much Irish merriment.

AEQUINOCTIUM AUTUMNALE 
(IN ALBA ET HIBERNIA): 

Dàn beag don fhoghair/
A little ode for autumn

This is our season of much content
our luggers laden with Hibernian lore
rolling on the equinoctial waves 
crossing the Columban sea
heading to our homeland harbour
leaving the hurling and jigging
in the nine glens of Antrim
fiddle and pipe tunes fading
from the Ould Lammas Fair
bearing west of the mulls – 
Kintyre and Oa –
favoured  by a south-west wind
on the Argyll islands
the cuckoo and corncrake now silent
the corn stacks stand sentinel
the barn doors are bolted
washing lines sag with salted saith
sun-dried portly peat stacks
by the shaded gable ends
anticipating the longer fireside nights
immersed in bardic tomes and tales
brightly picking black brambles
in the Islay mist
bemused by the mellow Keats
and his autumnal hues