Etymology and the Meaning of Hamlet

Once the stone is thrown

The ideas come like ripples

Hamlet via Joyce  via Shakespeare

through  Irish , Icelandic , Norse and Gaelic

Musing on the skull of Yoric,

grinders , rings , stones and symbols

Whirlpools off the Isle of Jura.

The first letter of a lost loves name.

Somehow you get us back

To the theme

With the skill and precision

Of an improvising jazz musician.

(After Hearing a lecture by Lisa Collinson on Hamlet at Aberdeen’s  Word Festival in 2011)