Scotland Small?
Scotland small? Our multiform, our infinite Scotland small?
Only as a patch of hillside may be a cliché corner
To a fool who cries ‘Nothing but heather!’ where in September another
Sitting there and resting and gazing round
Sees not only heather but blaeberries
With bright green leaves and leaves already turned scarlet
Hiding ripe blaeberries; and amongst the sage green leaves
Of the bog-myrtle the golden flowers of the tormentil shining;
And on the small bare places, where the Blackface sheep
Found grazing, milkworts blue as summer skies;
And down in neglected peat hags, not worked
Within living memory, sphagnum moss in pastel shades
Of yellow, green, and pink; sundew and butterwort
Waiting with wide-open sticky leaves for their tiny winged prey;
And nodding harebells vying in their colour
With the blue butterflies that poise themselves delicately upon them;
And stunted rowans with harsh dry leaves of glorious colour.
‘Nothing but heather’ – How marvellously descriptive! And incomplete!

Hugh MacDiarmid