Reg Holder
Reg Holder grew up in East Africa, coming to the UK to train for the Merchant Navy. He is a Master Mariner and after sailing on cargo ships and tankers came ashore as a pilot, working in oil terminals. He is now a marine consultant and he and his wife Pat have lived in Ross-shire since 1998.
Anticipation
I have desired to spend my life in years past
which I have cherished at any hour of the day or night
to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and future,
but inseparable from its very nature
to anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely Nature herself!
many mornings, summer and winter
So many autumn, ay, and winter days,
to hear what was in the wind and
manna-wise, would dissolve again in the sun.
inspector of snow storms and rain storms
of forest paths and ravines bridged, leaping fences
have watered the red huckleberry, the sand cherry
which might have withered in dry seasons
However, I have not set my heart on that
(after Thoreau: Walden)