Five Poems by Paul McCartney

Paul McCartney is the author of “Blackbird Singing: Poems and Lyrics 1965-1999” (W.W. Norton: 186 pp., $22.95) to be published tomorrow. Used by kind permission of the author and publisher.

Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre

Oh mist rolling in from the sea

My desire is always to be here

Oh Mull of Kintyre

Far have I traveled and much have I seen

Dark distant mountains with valleys of green

Past painted deserts, the sun sets on fire

As he carries me home to the Mull of Kintyre

Sweep through the heather like deer in the glen

Carry me back to the days I knew then

Nights when we sang like a heavenly choir

Of the life and the times of the Mull of Kintyre

Smiles in the sunshine and tears in the rain

Still take me back where my memories remain

Flickering embers grow higher and higher

As they carry me back to the Mull of Kintyre

Mull of Kintyre

Oh mist rolling in from the sea

My desire is always to be here

Oh Mull of Kintyre

Black Jacket

Sadness isn’t sadness it’s happiness

in a black jacket

Death isn’t death

it’s life

that’s jumped off a tall cliff

Tears are not tears

They’re balls

of laughter

dipped in salt

Steel

Steel yourself against the rapid fire

Confusion of events that masquerade as life

Bullet holes in time’s demented curtain

This Is the Way

This is the way we put out the candle.

Farewell to childhood.

Deep in the wild wood a fire goes out,

And what are we left with

Now we are grown up?

This is the way we pull up the anchor.

Goodbye to romance.

Out on the ocean a good ship is lost,

And what are we left with

Now we are grown up?

Full Moon’s Eve

On a full moon’s eve

A tiger sprang

And gnawed on

Who I used to be

A pale haze lights

The fox’s eye

And ...

Checking once

He leaves by a hole in the hedge

Old loves return

To kiss the lips

In case the empty gallery

Should fill with whispering strangers

Like a flood