BOSBHEIN
by Tommy McLeod

(I'm often struck by some of the similarities between my culture and cultures as distant as Hawaii. In my culture we also see all of the landscape as being alive, poetry also plays a big part in our love and recognition of this. In thanks to you for asking for a healing for me I would like to dedicate to you one of my recent poems which I believe will create a spiritual resonance. I wrote this from the top of a beautiful mountain in the western Highlands of Scotland before my op. The name of the mountain is Bosbhein. In English it means wizard or mountain of magic. I have also added some notes regarding translation etc.)

Great mountain of magic
Many times I heard you call
Many times my heart it leapt
As your whispers came upon the breeze
Timeless, ancient

Your allure I knew I could not ignore
Nor, wanted too
And no time nor space can separate you from I
As the love I feel for you draws me
Like an autumn leave to mother earth
Along your winding umbilical cord

And through abhainn na odiche
I feel your life blood course
Before the shapes of red stone
Gnarled and gouged
By a time beyond My perception
I now pause,
Wondering, just wondering

I think of all you have borne witness too
Great mountain of magic
You who heard the tongue of children
Long gone
But,
Who in your name live on

And the song of wolf too
No stranger once
To your even then ancient slopes
Nor,
Was the sight of raven banner
Borne on dragon prows from far the north

But now
Now I can hear your heart beat
But more I sense it
As the sky grows closer
And euphoria and fatigue compete
Always I feel this way when you call to me

For now I stand
As though in some ancient dream time
On your western shoulder
Transfixed
By embers from Tir nan Oag
I fancy

And now
I feel myself as in a dream
For
You and I are one
Great mountain in the west
And I,
I have come home

Poet's Notes:
Bosbhein= wizard or magic pronounced Bosh vein
Abhainn na odiche = river of the night pronounced aveen na hike ya
Tongue of children =the Gaelic language once used in this area
Raven banner on dragon prows= the Norse and viking influence on this part of Scotland
Tir nan oag= Island beyond the western horizon where all Celts go at the end of their days. Literal translation is Land of eternal youth.

PORCUPINE LOVE
by Anonymous

It was the coldest winter ever. Many animals died because of the cold. The porcupines, realizing the situation, decided to group together. They were covered and protected, but the quills of each wounded the closest companion. After a while, they decided to distance themselves, and they began to die, alone and frozen.

So, they had to make a choice: either accept the quills of their companions or disappear from the Earth. Wisely, they decided to go back to being together. They learned to live with the little wounds that were caused by their close relationships because the most important part was the heat that came from the others. They were able to survive.

The best relationship is not the one that brings together perfect people, but the one that forms when individuals learn to live with the imperfections and admire the good qualities of others.