JOHN

Consciously the disciple whom Jesus

Loved, you followed:

For you had leaned on Him

And you, in that nearness, had

Enquired: these features displayed

Such as continue to the end.

More near Scurdie Ness

JAMES

Was the training - one

Of the select: taken to the house

Of Jairus, the mountain of glory,

The garden of distress - squandered

On the point of Herod's sword?

No; you had thus formed in

Perfection heaven required. 

Scurdie Ness Lighthouse, Near Montrose

Montrose Basin

ANDREW

 

A fisherman's life - finding:

Messias found, your thought

Was first to find your brother

- Earliest fisher of men.

And the boy with loaves and fishes

You discovered: may I have such

Divine serendipity!

Signal Tower Museum

and

Lunan Bay

PETER

 

First, Peter ‑ not only

First to speak, wisely
Or not, first to act
Most often rashly ‑ you
Were selected, the first
Apostle to see Christ
Risen; the first preacher
In the fresh era; the first

To invade the Gentile earth.

FISHERMAN

 

Why, when the plush sea played,

Beating random rhythms on the hull,

Beneath the bright sky’s charms

As the sheen of the sunlight rayed

Did he move in the water’s lull

To lie in the cold sea’s arms?

Since the sun seemed the better suitor

And the air was sweet to the lungs

Why did he stumble and fall?

The shore girls were cuter,

Sweeter songs lapped from their tongues,

Yet he answered the water’s call.

They wept on the harbour wall

For the lost and wasted life

And the lost and wasted seed,

As he rocked in the sea’s loll,

The lap of his chosen wife

Never to be inbred.

For God’s way was this -

A short time of breath,

Pulsing blood, flesh;

Then to lie thus,

Safely wrapped in death,

Finding His love lush.

(This is an elegy for a family friend of my mother's drowned some time before I was born, but whose photo was always up in the house as i was growing up.  He originated in Peterhead.)

More of Inchcolm Island

Seabirds and seals; Edinburgh in the background

THUS FAR

Thus far

And no

Farther

For here shall thy proud waves

Be stayed – not always

At the cliff wall

But often in the beaches

And the mothering arms of a bay

Yielding to the tide,

Taking the force, but finally,

Holding the line;

Sometimes meeting, turning, eddying

In the estuary's flow

Allowing the far valleys to fill and fill with water

Till the turn

Then rushing forward along with the river's flood.

Thus far

Thus are God's ways:

Letting.

The Firth of Forth from Inchcolm Island

THE BALLANT O MORDECAI

 

Oh hae ye nae heard o Haman the fause,
Or o Mordecai the true;
Though the king wad honour Haman the fause,
Mordecai wadna boo.

Than Haman proclaimit, Thon chiel’s a Jew:
If he winna boo tae me
Nae him alane but a his fowk
As shair’s I leeve shall dee.

Sae the Jews a wept, an the Jews a wailed;
Mordecai rendit his claes;
Till the queen heard o’it, an speirt at him
The caas o a his waes.

Fer the queen wis o Mordecai’s freens
Whilk Haman didna ken;
Fer the God a haivin hid aa in His haunds,
An He’s wyser far nor men.

Noo if ye went afore the king
An he wis pleasit wi ye
He’s haud oot his gowden staffie tae ye:
If he didna, ye waud dee.

Aiblins, quo the queen, the king’ll haud oot
His gowden staffie tae me;
Aiblins he’ll no, sae fast fer me,
An if I dee, I dee.

Trumlin she stood afore the king:
He held his staffie oot!
Fer God Himsel hid gaen afore
An skailit ony doubt.

Sae she axed the king an Haman tae dine,
An Haman wis unco prood;
No aince but twice he got the invite,
Though it did the sorra nae good.

But aar at time hid cam ae nicht
The king he couldna sleep
Sae they read till him frae the record beuk
That aa guid kingdom’s keep.

It tellt hoo Mordecai the Jew
Hid saivit the monarch’s heid;
But they fund at naethin guid wis deen
Tae thank fer his guid deed.
Sae the king, he askit Haman as syne
As Haman cam intil sicht:
Whit sall be deen until the chiel
In wham the king his delicht?

Noo Haman thocht wad the king delicht
In ony forbye mysel?
Gie him, quoth he, yer ane claes tae weir
An yer steid tae ride as well.

Noo dae it, Haman, tae Mordecai
An cry afore him richt:
Thus sall be deen until the chiel
In wham the king his delicht.

Sae Haman hid to lead the hoarse
An tell o the king’s guid fame;
An ochone, carked Haman, ochone is me
Whan he gat back till his dame.

Fer he’d askit o Mordecai his dame
Whit she thocht at he suld dee;
An she tellt him to bigg a hangrell
At wis fifty cubits hie.

Syne he cam with the king until Esther’s feast
An thon wis a graun soiree;
Sae the king speirt at her, sin he wis sae blithe,
Whit d’ye wish fer me tae dee?

My fowk, the Jows, and yer queen, masel,
Are sellit till a wickit fae man;
And the bangster wha’d kill us a if he could
Is nane but thon wickit Haman.

Thar a hangrell fifty cubit hie,
Ledged ane, near Haman’s hoose.
Hing him hie upo it, bade the king;
Mak siccar fause Haman’s noose.

He pit his signet ring on the haun
O Mordecai the true;
An he went oot frae him weirin a croon
An cled in whicht and blue.

The Jews wha newlins hid aa been sad
Noo shooted lood wi glee;
Fer God hid warked ahin it aa
As He wull ayeweys dee.                                                                                     

31/05/2025

A little excursion into using the Scots language, the form being like a border ballad.  

More of Inchcolm Island, including the view from the priory ruins towards Edinburgh.

PEACE IN FAILURE by Frank Houghton

 When, in the stillness of a summer eve,

Thrilled by sweet sadness of the setting sun,

I sit alone, and penitently grieve

O'er all that I have done, and left undone - 

All the sad waste of bygone years recalling,

Good half-achieved, and evil undestroyed,

To Him, who can preserve my feet from falling,

I turn, and He is with me.  Overjoyed,

My spirit yearns with longing to behold

His image, who, when tempted, never failed.

The past is pardoned, and His arms enfold

One who was faint, and left the heights unscaled.

Long shadows flit around me; no stars shine,

But all is light within me - He is mine!

May 25 1914 (i.e. when he was 20)

Frank Houghton (1894-1972); Houghton subsequently served as General Director of the China Inland Mission.

A Sail in the Firth of Forth towards Inchcolm Island

(Last September)