“I’ll take a pound”
“A pound?”
“A pound” he said.
“Now take this tree”.
I held the first of many.
And listened to living memories
To opinions and judgement
Recollection and principle.
I never thought to interrupt his flow.
He didn’t need me.
Fighting in the jungle
Burma to the Borders.
Trees, Churchill, Hiroshima
Atlantic crossings, dairies, Reivers,
Clydesdales, Reich and home.
Somewhere, deep inside
There lurked a tap.
It flowed.
Seventy years of human experience
Unedited
But seen only from one window.
And yet
A pound well spent.
This poem recounts the first time I met Haig Douglas. I simply asked him if I could walk my dog on his land. Haig Douglas was a member of the famous Border family of the same name. He farmed at Glendearg for over forty years and took a particular interest in tree planting and local history. He fought in the jungle campaigns during the Second World War and never took a backward step in his life. Haig Douglas died in 1998.
