February 2025

February is the month of love, and Alexander McCall Smith’s writing is always filled with musings about the nature of love, both romantic and platonic. In his poetry collection In A Time of Distance, there is a whole section on poems about love. This month we are sharing the poem ‘On Clouds Over Mull: A Love Song.’

On Clouds Over Mull: A Love Song

White the shifting veils of rain
That fall like tears, like tears, so white,
And soft upon your cheek, my dear,
So soft and wet upon your cheek;
And Mull stands guard against
The green sea, stands guard
Against the green sea.

And if our hearts will have to weep,
As all hearts will, and ours must do,
Then we shall shed on this soft isle
These human tears, like tears of rain
That fall so soft upon the land
So gentle in their quiet regret
For what is not, and cannot be,
For what is not, and cannot be.

In A Time of Distance is available in paperback now from Polygon.