THE Scottish launch of Lightkeepers, the posthumous collection by the late Elizabeth Burns, takes place this evening at 6pm at the Scottish Poetry Library, Edinburgh. Here is a sample of her perceptiveness and sensitivity. The book, edited by her friends and fellow poets Gerrie Fellows and Jane Routh, is published by Wayleave at £12.

THE HARE

No one knows his name, or anything about him

except he must have been a master craftsman

cutting little chunks from sticks of limestone,

sandstone, brick or marble – his palette of colours –

and placing the chosen tesserae so carefully,

making this floor-pattern of intricate knotwork

surrounding a circle, and here at the centre,

the hare. No one remembers his name, but look

how he makes an animal alive –

look how he’s shaded the colours of fur,

its soft greys and browns, laid tiny cubes of glass

to give glints of light to the curve of the back;

look at the grey-blue circle of the eye, the pink

inside the ears, look at the nibbling mouth,

eating a succulent plant, think of the quiver

of nose, sniffing it; look at the scut and the taut,

muscular haunches, the back legs ready to spring,

to leap up from this floor and out into grass,

speeding through fields, over hills, bounding

through spring, season of madness and delight –

His name’s forgotten, but look what he made us

nearly two thousand years ago – his gift

from the past to the future, picture of a creature

cut from stone: this living, breathing hare.