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inspiration

my mind wanders to Venice San Francisco Aix-en-Provence
to the banks of the Somme and the Columbia Rivers
to the Snoqualmie Pass and Glencoe
to Loch Lomond and the Puget Sound
to the Mediterranean Sea and to English Bay Vancouver BC

I think of my grandson
the trees the birds the animals we saw and talked to
of our trips down the Clyde on the Waverley Paddle Steamer
to Helensburgh where we found crabs in rock pools
to the Museum of Transport and the Glasgow Science Centre
to Kelvingrove Park and Museum
the Bird Sanctuary at Lochwinnoch
and the National Museum in Edinburgh

for whom I wrote three children’s books
innumerable poems and short stories
more daft rhymes than you can shake a stick at
even if it is a secret dragon-hunting mammoth-catching super-hydrosonic magic stick

he taught me that every visit to Queens Park
(named after Mary Queen of Scots)
was a new adventure

and I learned from him
that life is inspiration
if only we live it