The HyperTexts

Charles Gorrie

Charles E. Gorrie is sometimes know as Teàrlach. We will let him describe himself in his own words: "I’m a septuagenarian, grandfather of three, martial artist, poet, singer-songwriter. I started writing around the age fourteen and have never stopped. It’s an affliction that if I deny, it knocks me off my stride and if I follow, it distracts me totally. Sometimes the only thing to do is go with it. In the distant past I was a rehabilitation specialist in a psychiatric hospital. A handful of years back in another universe, a friend and I created a small handmade illustrated booklet of poems, for sale and as gifts across our martial arts community. Some going as far as Australia and others to Canada. I now publish on Substack as Teàrlach. I am an associate member of the Lodge Arts Community, based in Johnstonebridge near Dumfries in Scotland. I live in south Glasgow with my wife Sukhbir and explore the Scottish islands with my eldest daughter Ruth."



             A mares nest
A fractured place a seeming broken world
A mares nest to unravel tangled lines to snare 
It seemed like such a simple thing  
And simple things seem easy
So we opened up the box 
And let the darkness out



Darkness scuttles darkness hides
In nooks and crannies corners minds
Places where the earnest mop won’t go
Like missing socks and biro pens



Facing up the facing down
The lost the found the 
Looking out the looking round
The Shadows circle as we spin 



We spin the wheel
The wheel spins us
Be careful what you wish for
It may be wishing you
If you peer into the darkness  
The darkness peers right back into you
It seeps in, it seeps in
it seeps deeply into you


            
I woke to snow

December crept up on me
As November ran away
Said it was getting colder
There was no way that it could stay

And the snow will sit till Monday
That’s what the forecast says
the temperature hits plus one again
And the skies will bring us rain

For now I sit with this cold white
a stark black that reminds me
Of a landscape gift a friend a poem
A distance 
One who loves me

I woke to snow



           So Moved By The Blue

  You’ve always loved the bluebells
  Those swathes of blue that sweep the land
  Beneath the trees a flood of blue
  That time of year April to June 
                Wild hyacinths

    That follow white of snow
     Dropped Crocus carpet daffodil horde
      But none swathes the land so deep a hue
       Nor carries spring to summer
                         As you
     
             And all those times 
                We’d wander through the trees 
                  Amidst the sea of wind blown waves       
                                So you
                                        Your gorgeous blue



Lips

Your lips are pale like you 
Eyes Grey blue  
Deep as the sky
They linger on mine 
Soft and cloud like 
Alive
Soft and cloud like 
The gentlest gaze
We graze
Ephemeral 
Exquisite 
(I woke from a dream 
Entangled in you
Lips 
embracing
Touching grazing
your face

my face



The cup that runneth over

The cup that runneth over 
Spills into clasping hands 
To be drunk another day
A sense of love that leaves nothing behind
When the joy of one day bridges the night 
To bleed and spill into another
A love that takes nothing away

In this love I find thee
In this love you find me
With this love you bind me
With this love I bind thee
With this love I free thee
With this love you free me
A love that takes nothing away
A love that leaves nothing behind 



The islands at the edge

Contorting the land 
Plate tilts on its edge
Shattering that by glaciation shaped 
Of rock and golden sand
Driving through these islands of memory
Driving through these islands at the edge
Not all time is lost (forever)

As People Who shape you give way  
To people who make you
Giving way to you
As you arrive somewhere
Closer to the silence 
Closer to that edge

Sapphire dark a pale sky hue tourmaline heather hills  
black to purple/pink aquamarine emerald green
In the silence find me washed by the waves
Soul of a poet heart of a warrior
We inhabit these lands
These islands at the edge
By the precipice you will find me



       The Portal
On the other side of you
Lies a magic place
I visit when you’re here
No passing through 
But resting

falling in to you

On the other side of you 
Is silence
Holding space 
A time of stopping
 stillness 

falling in to you

On the other side of you
Lies a peace I cannot explain
This weaver of words 
no longer lost

falling in to you



My best friend I never see

My best friend I never see
All the rest are dead or gone
Sends me songs
We talk on the phone 
He’s my best friend 
I never see

So near the river
While I’m here 
Southside desert
fields and trees
A river….. another river
River city, that as well
Water flows through the divide
In the west that’s north of me
My best friend I never see

My best friend I never see
Sent a song this morning
A deep dark baritone 
a lonely guitar
My best friend I never see 
and me



              Amongst the Wild Roses

To sit here where wild roses grow
Deep within the scented breeze 
Feather light sense and feel 
Deeply touched
Tho far away   far away

Birds struggle in the air strong winds
Still they sing then turn and soar
For it does not matter if 
I never see you again. 
You are always here. 

Clouds roll and spill over
Tumble down mountain sides 
Obscuring then dissolving before the sun
The sea seems to pile up resisting the tide as it pulls   away 
Not wishing to leave these shores 

Last night a storm blew in 
The loudest storm   it
Shook this place  In   
These lands 
Where wild roses grow



On a Day

On a day in early autumn 
mists came
Softening the hardest edges of the chill
And the cold stark early morning light 
Reflecting back diffuse
An as yet unrisen sun
High above, the blue black sky
Hints of stars and
Is that moon?
Into the receding distance
Shapes obscure 
Perhaps a tree
Could those be 
mountains?

The HyperTexts