'Zen Calvinist'

This 'Zen Calvinist', as he described himself, being the poet Norman MacCaig, one of Scotland's finest twentieth-century writers.  Sculpted by David Annand, this bronze Herm is one of a series lining the shores of one of the lochans in Edinburgh Park in west Edinburgh.  I think it's a fine example of vibrant portraiture and I love the way it almost seems to float above its supporting column.

For my money, the poem displayed on the near side of the column (the far side has a short biography) is a good example of the poet's self description:

'Notations of Ten Summer Minutes'

A boy skips flat stones out to sea-each does fine
till a small wave meets it head on and swallows it.
The boy will do the same.

The schoolmaster stands looking out of the window
with one Latin eye and one Greek one.
A boat rounds the point in Gaelic.

Out of the shop comes a stream
of Omo, Weetabix, BiSoDol tablets and a man
with a pocket shaped like a whisky bottle.

Lord V. walks by with the village in his pocket
Angus walks by
spending the village into the air.

A melodeon is wheezing a clear-throated jig
on the deck of the Arcadia. On the shore hills Pan
cocks a hairy ear; and falls asleep again.

The ten minutes are up, except they aren't.
I leave the village, except I don't.
The jig fades to silence, except it doesn't.

Norman MacCaig

Herm - http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/dict.aspx?word=herm