G A L D R A G O N  P R E S S  /  Poets

Joanna Ramsey was born in London and grew up in Kent. She has worked as a librarian and as a film and television archivist. She has lived in Stromness, Orkney since 1988. She was awarded a Scottish Arts Council Writer's Bursary in 2000.

EVENING VISIT In your room dark and heavy with books firelight moves upon the walls. Your lamp inverts its triangle of light and pictures hang in the mysterious shadows. There are always flowers on the table from a Deerness garden, a blue bowl of fruit, a cup, a plate. You go to make the tea and I hear you singing 'Bread of Heaven' as the kettle boils. We talk of everything except your work, exchanging the small details of our lives. Later I walk home beside the cold black sea, the sky's rim shivering with Northern Lights. Copyright © Joanna Ramsey 1998/2001