Tessa Ransford OBE, Hon.DUniv (Paisley), MA, Dip Ed Poetry Practitioner and Adviser 31 Royal Park Terrace, Edinburgh EH8 8JA, Scotland, U.K. Tel : 0131 661 1277 E-mail : wisdomfield@talk21.com

In January, when the light is weakest, Turner's watercolour paintings are exhibited in the National Gallery of Scotland. This gave me the concept of a watercolour poem. A WATERCOLOUR POEM A watercolour poem to be held for opening only in the weakest light a poem of resilience and routine, the dimmer kind, accepting, reticent not set to prove itself, fight some good fight but oblivious to its own design not noticeable even, noticing likeness, oddness, traces lingering The muddy pathway purified in snow and hillside magnified in frosty sky that full moon, thirteenth in the year, on Ne'er Day, ominous, unusual, blue widefarer, presageful, to clarify the watercolour faith that thaws our fear Tessa Ransford