about a [Norman] MacCaig poem. Rather he is concerned to present himself as a man like any other engaged in the business of living. What is remarkable, though, is that while his day job was that of a teacher--eventually he was appointed headmaster of Inch Primary School in Edinburgh--this is rarely, if ever, reflected in his work. Thus there are few poems about the pupils he taught or his fellow teachers. One wonders why.In contrast, he was endlessly fascinated by life in the north-east from where his Gaelic forebears had hailed. He always thought of himself as "a three-quarter Gael", because three out of his four grandparents were from the Western Isles. Every summer MacCaig, his wife Isabel and son and daughter would decamp to Lochinver where he would walk and fish, immerse himself in the community, watch and wonder, as he wrote in An Ordinary Day: "I took my mind a walk/or my mind took me a walk--/whichever was the truth of it."
from Herald Scotland: Norman MacCaig was a man of many words
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