© 2007-2014 Clan Thompson

The Pipes

                                              By Mark Alan Thompson, 2010

Dedicated to Clan Thom(p)son


The pipes

Stir my blood

Though I am still with eyes shut; heart races and stomach jitters

Calming and energizing

The pipes bring peace and sound war

From ancient landscapes of rock and green and oceans gray

The pipes call to me through time

Mists and darkness mysterious

The pipes take me to a place

Where I join countless ancestors I’ve never known

But I am a part of them

And they are a part of me

We are together when the pipes play

And the pipes sing of our strength


We commune at table

Eat our haggis and drink our whiskey

Praise our God and love our women

Moss and fog, sea spray and foam

Kilts and laughter and legends in lochs

Petitions met with a friendly ‘aye’

A land as rugged and hard as her children

The pipes take me to a place

Where I join countless ancestors I’ve never known

But I am a part of them

And they are a part of me

We are together when the pipes play

And the pipes sing of our strength


Ancient divides go deep but fail to separate love

White cliffs and hills of Argyle

Emerald Isles and crimson dragons

They are all one to me

Each is unique; each is beauty

One is not diminished by the others

Together they weave a fabric of plaid

Unique threads make a garment too strong to rent

The pipes take me to a place

Where I join countless ancestors I’ve never known

But I am a part of them

And they are a part of me

We are together when the pipes play

And the pipes sing of our strength


The time is but chapters

Pages that turn

What is all to us

Is only a paragraph in the infinite

From where we came and where we go

Is not ours to know

Only that we are here and we may choose

To live the life we were blessed to live

Or count the days and lament how few

The pipes will continue to sing

Their notes dancing on a Britannic breeze

And they will sing to my children’s children’s children

The pipes will take them to a place

Where descendants join us that we’ve never known

They will be part of us

And we will be part of them

We will be together when the pipes play

And the pipes will sing of our strength.

KIDS