The Makar, Kathleen Jamie, Scotland's equivalent of the Poet Laureate has written this poem for the late Queen
Lochnagar
Kathleen Jamie
The alder boughs hang heavy,
Red weighs the rowan-trees
That line the well-loved path which climbs
To Lochnagar from Dee
And knows at last the open hill,
Those ancient wind-honed heights
Where deer stand shy and sky-lined,
Then vanish from living sight,
Where grief is ice, and history
Is distant roiling skies,
Where weather chases weather
Across the lands she strived
To serve, and served supremely well,
Till the call came from afar:
Back to the country kept in her heart,
the Dee, and Lochnagar.
Kathleen Jamie
The Makar gives permission for republishing this poem to not for profit media.
Kathleen Jamie wrote this touching tribute to the Queen, who died in September 2022. The Makar said, “I hope the people who loved her can find words of comfort in this poem.”