Eggplant.place

209d

Here is a letter
come across the ocean
over the back of a world
curved like a whale…

—Hugh McMillan, “Letter”
published in THE OTHER CREATURES IN THE WOOD (Mariscat, 2014)

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/letter/

#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #poem #poetry #lovepoem #lovepoetry #Valentine

Letter
Hugh McMillan

Here is a letter
come across the ocean
over the back of a world
curved like a whale.
I unwrap it, like tissue,
and sentences spill out,
as though the seal on a jar has broken,
coils of cornflower blue
on paper thin as shell.

I saw a sailor’s valentine once
in a museum in Nantucket Sound,
a mosaic of broken scallop
glued in a compass rose.
‘Writ from the heart’ it said.
Words come best like that:
in ink or blood,
when the source is from a major vein.

I read, and understand this much:
if ink sees off time and miles, then so must love.

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209d

O dastram, dastram,
Dastram Mòrag!
Rìbhinn bhuidh’, bhasdalach,
Leac-ruiteach ròsach…

—Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, bho “Moladh Mòrag”
published in DASTRAM/DELIRIUM: Selected Poems of Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair, Versions by Taylor Strickland (Broken Sleep Books, 2023)

https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/taylor-strickland-dastram-delirium

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #ValentinesDay #poem #poetry #18thcentury #love #lovepoem #lovepoetry

bho Moladh Mòraig
Alasdair Mac Mhaighstir Alasdair

O dastram, dastram,
Dastram Mòrag!
Rìbhinn bhuidh’, bhasdalach,
Leac-ruiteach ròsach;
A gruaidhean air lasadh
Mar an lasair-chlach dhathte,
’S a deud mar a’ sneachda,
Cruinn-shnaighte ’n dlùth òrdugh;
Ri Venus cho tlachdmhor
An taitneachdainn fheòlmhor,
Ri Dido cho maiseach,
Cho snasmhor ’s cho còrr rith’;
’S e thionnsgain dhomh caitheamh
’S a lùghdaich mo ràithean,
A’ bhallag ghrinn laghach
Chuir na gathan sa ’m fheòil-sa.

ALT

from Praised be Morag
translated by Taylor Strickland

Delirium! Delirium
from her, a girl blonde,
lurid: how she snuffs out
her own flint-spark glow,
and in one white bite
hewn from snow.
As sex and excess,
as body and beauty,
so Dido, so Venus,
so Morag ravishes
my seasons,
my genius
spent.
A girl with sharp agency
can pierce the heart
clean through.

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209d

Like the Idalian queene,
Her haire about her eyne,
With necke and brests ripe apples to be seene,
At first glance of the morne
In Cyprus gardens gathering those faire flowrs
Which of her bloud were borne…

—William Drummond of Hawthornden (1585–1649), “Like the Idalian queene”

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/jacobean-parnassus/

#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #Valentine #17thcentury #earlymodern #poem #poetry #lovepoem #lovepoetry

“Like the Idalian queene”
by William Drummond of Hawthornden

Like the Idalian queene,
Her haire about her eyne,
With necke and brests ripe apples to be seene,
At first glance of the morne
In Cyprus gardens gathering those faire flowrs
Which of her bloud were borne,
I saw, but fainting saw, my paramours.
The Graces naked danc’d about the place,
The winds and trees, amaz’d,
With silence on her gaz’d,
The flowrs did smile, like those upon her face;
And as their aspine stalkes those fingers band,
That shee might read my case
A hyacinth I wisht mee in her hand.

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209d

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine…

—Edwin Morgan, “Strawberries”🍓
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967

#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #poem #poetry #LGBTQ #LGBTQplusHM #Valentine #lovepoem #lovepoetry #EdwinMorgan #20thcentury

Strawberries
Edwin Morgan

There were never strawberries
like the ones we had
that sultry afternoon
sitting on the step
of the open french window
facing each other
your knees held in mine
the blue plates in our laps
the strawberries glistening
in the hot sunlight
we dipped them in sugar
looking at each other
not hurrying the feast
for one to come
the empty plates

laid on the stone together
with the two forks crossed
and I bent towards you
sweet in that air
in my arms
abandoned like a child
from your eager mouth
the taste of strawberries
in my memory
lean back again
let me love you

let the sun beat
on our forgetfulness
one hour of all
the heat intense
and summer lightning
on the Kilpatrick hills

let the storm wash the plates

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1y

#OTD Virginia Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway was published.

What a Plunge! Teaching Mrs. Dalloway to High Schoolers in 2025

by Mia Manzulli

https://lithub.com/what-a-plunge-teaching-mrs-dalloway-to-high-schoolers-in-2025/

Mrs. Dalloway at PG

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/71865

#books #literature

Cover art for the first edition of Mrs. Dalloway by Vanessa Bell.

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209d

The Mercator Projection
Currently on BBC Sounds

In a short work for Valentine’s Day by Heather Parry, a cartographer redraws the map for those she loves

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0027v47

#Scottish #literature #shortfiction #shortstory #audio #Valentine #ValentinesDay

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209d

Whether the weather be dreich or fair, my luve,
if guid times greet us, or we hae tae face the worst,
ahint and afore whit will happen tae us…

—Jackie Kay, “A Lang Promise”
published in BANTAM (Picador, 2017)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/jackie-kay/bantam/9781509887927

#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #Valentine #poem #poetry #LGBTQ #LGBTQplusHM #lovepoem #lovepoetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #womenwriters #JackieKay

A Lang Promise
Jackie Kay

Whether the weather be dreich or fair, my luve,
if guid times greet us, or we hae tae face the worst,
ahint and afore whit will happen tae us:
blind in the present, eyes open to the furore,
unkempt or perjink, suddenly puir or poorly,
peely-wally or in fine fettle, beld or frosty,
calm as a ghoul or in a feery-farry,
in dork December or in springy spring weather,
doon by the Barrows, or on the Champs-Élysées,
at midnight, first licht, whether the mune
be roond or crescent, and yer o' soond mind
or absent, I'll tak your trusty haun
and lead you over the haw – hame, ma darlin.
I’ll carry ma lantern, and daur defend ye agin ony foe;
and whilst there is breath in me, I'll blaw it intae ye.
Fir ye are ma true luve, the bonnie face I see;
nichts I fall intae slumber, it’s ye swimming up
in all yer guidness and blitheness, yer passion.
You’ll be mine, noo, an’ till the end o’ time,
ma bonnie lassie, I’ll tak the full guid o’ ye
and gie it back, and gie it back tae ye:
a furst kiss, a lang promise, time’s gowden ring.

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208d

This week's #NewBooks at the library:
- I expanded my collection of #Tolkien books with The Tower and the Ruin: J.R.R. Tolkien's Creation from W.W. Norton
- I used my employer's Christmas voucher to buy a copy of Simon Parkin's The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege from Sceptre (look out for a review in due course).
- I also found a second-hand copy of What Is Regeneration? from the University of Chicago Press.

#Books #Scicomm #Tolkien #Literature #DevelopmentalBiology #SeedBank #Botany #Bookstodon @bookstodon

A photo of three books standing on a small, brown, wooden table. The out-of-focus background shows black shelves full of books.

On the left, standing up, The Tower and the Ruin, showing a black-and-white photo of J.R.R. Tolkien on a black background. He is wearing a suit and lighting his pipe.

In the middle, lying down, What Is Regeneration?, showing several blue drawings of hydras, a stalked underwater hydrozoan with a crown of tentacles at its free end.

On the right, standing up, The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, showing part of a black-and-white photo of two women wearing head scarves, seated against a background of concrete rubble. The top half of the cover shows several technical botanical drawings of plants in colour and black-and-white.

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75d

Islay Book Festival 2026
27–30 August

Tickets are now on sale for the 2026 Islay Book Festival

https://www.islaybookfestival.co.uk

#Scottish #literature #Hebrides #Islay #BookFestival #IslayBookFestival

Poster: a white lighthouse sits on top of a blue-green hill, sweeping pale-pink beams across the page. The poster reads:

ISLAY BOOK FESTIVAL ’26
Fèis Leabhraichean Ìle
27th - 30th August
@IslayBookFest IslayBookFestival.co.uk

Featured authors:
Douglas Stuart
Jenni Fagan
Louise Welsh
C.J. Cooke
Dougie Donnelly
Clare Jackson
Julie Lin
Mya-Rose Craig
lan Buxton
Eiliah Muldoon
Stuart Graham
Hannah Lavery
Moray Watson
Polly Pullar
Linda Macleod
Peter Roberts
Sandra Ireland
Justin Davies

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142d

dear small daughter for a long time I did not write
what had already become past-tense was past-tense
and I am sorry I was not able to hold it as one might
in a dream hold a stream of water and sing it to sleep…

—Sheila Black, “Climate (7) (Past Tense)”
published in BREAK IN CASE OF SILENCE: New Writing Scotland 39 (ASL, 2021)

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws39/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EarthDay #EarthDay2026 #climate #environment #environmentalism #climatechange

Sheila Black
Climate (7) (Past Tense)

dear small daughter for a long time I did not write
what had already become past-tense was past-tense
and I am sorry I was not able to hold it as one might
in a dream hold a stream of water and sing it to sleep
and I am sorry that I told you this image as if it were
in truth perdurable plangent and constant moon
over our seas when it is the shifting that matters.
dear small the birds the mockingbirds they sang
in the middle of the night and for this we cursed
them but then we came upon their nests in the black
of day noon when the sun is a diamond burning
through however much blue and the two of them
circled so tirelessly with their wings fanning the
turquoise eggs inside the nest of dead grass and we
understood we were not the only ones but even this
could not stop us from doing as we had done all
our lives long and the cars we pulled out of driveways
and the highways that took us into the buzzing
electric of buildings poured in dense concrete
and the cooling chemicals seeping and cycling
as though through calm artificial hearts and outside
unnoticed the ghost-blue of juniper needle and berry
and the ghost-rising of smoke from the fires we
claimed we had not set. dear daughter now that we
must use the past-tense for what we thought was ours
now as we move into the possible distance I open
my hand to give you this picture of two wings.

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143d

Today is Nabokov’s birthday.

A serious butterfly specialist and a brilliant #literature professor in the US, famous for his lectures.

Speaking of Lolita: he did not write a #romance. He wrote a chilling masterclass in manipulation and self-justification.

Predators like #Epstein crave beautiful alibis. #Nabokov offers none. He gives us a liar so eloquent that the #readers has to struggle not to be deceived.

#books #bookstodon #today #writers #writer
@bookstodon #birthday

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1y

Thae laddies in the Celtic shirts,
a baker’s dozen
lumbering all the way to the summit cairn
the hot last Saturday of May
as larks trilled
and the loch-side braes released their midgies…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Ben Lomond”
published in THE BONNIEST COMPANIE (Picador, 2015)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/the-bonniest-companie/9781509801718

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry

Ben Lomond
Kathleen Jamie

Thae laddies in the Celtic shirts,
a baker’s dozen
lumbering all the way to the summit cairn
the hot last Saturday of May
as larks trilled
and the loch-side braes released their midgies …

Well, up at the raven-haunted trig-point
(as the sun shone bright o’er the whole lower Clyde)
they unfurled a banner,
and triumphant-sombre, ranked themselves behind it
for the photies,
‘R.I.P.’ it read, then the name of a wee boy

they’ll never meet again. Ach,
would the wean were playing fit-ba
on some bonny banks somewhere …

There’s no accounting for it, is there?
I mean the low road, and the high.

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142d

Change, change – that’s what the terns scream
down at their seaward rocks;
ﬂeet clouds and salt kiss –
everything else is provisional,
us and all our works…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Fianuis”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)

https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/selected-poems/9781509882953

#Scottish #literature #EarthDay #poem #poetry #EarthDay2026 #environment #environmentalism

Fianuis
by Kathleen Jamie

Well, friend, we’re here again —
sauntering the last half-mile to the land’s frayed end
to find what’s laid on for us, strewn across the turf —
gull feathers, bleached shells,
a whole bull seal, bone-dry,
knackered from the rut
(we knock on his leathern head, but no one’s home).

Change, change — that’s what the terns scream
down at their seaward rocks;
ﬂeet clouds and salt kiss —
everything else is provisional,
us and all our works.
I guess that’s why we like it here:
listen — a brief lull,
a rock pipit’s seed-small notes.

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1y

Breakfast time: I am reading the book "The Last Goddess" by Kateřina Tučková.
(Translated from Czech by Andrew Oakland)
And it touches me because the book begins with themes that have also influenced my life - women, health care and intelligence service. I won't say any more so as not to spoil anything ;)

#TheLastGoddess #Books #IAmReading #Reading #Literature

@lesekreis
@boeken
@bookstodon

A paperback copy of "The Last Goddess" by Katerina Tuckova sits on a white plate next to a cup of coffee on a white wooden table.

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194d

On seeing Iran in the news, I want to say

my grandmother was called Nasreen,
that she died two years ago in Tabriz
and I couldn’t go to say goodbye,
that she knew nothing of power,
nuclear or otherwise…

—Marjorie Lotfi, “On seeing Iran in the news, I want to say”
published in THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK (Bloodaxe, 2024).

D.A. Prince reviews THE WRONG PERSON TO ASK on The Friday Poem:

https://thefridaypoem.substack.com/p/the-friday-poem-on-16th-may-2025

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Iran

Marjorie Lotfi
On seeing Iran in the news, I want to say

my grandmother was called Nasreen,
that she died two years ago in Tabriz
and I couldn’t go to say goodbye,
that she knew nothing of power,
nuclear or otherwise. I want to say
that the bonfires for Chahar Shanbeh Suri
were built by our neighbour’s hands;
as children we were taught to jump over
and not be caught by the flames. I want to say
my cousin Elnaz, the one born after I left,
has a son and two degrees in Chemistry,
and had trouble getting a job. I want to say
that the night we swam towards
the moon hanging over the horizon
of the Caspian Sea, we found ourselves
kneeling on a sandbar we couldn’t see
like a last gift. I want to say
I’m the wrong person to ask.

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1y

CHEKHOV’S PANDEMIC?

BY EMMA ADLER

https://www.publicbooks.org/chekhovs-pandemic/

Schekhov at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/708

#books #literature

Chekhov in 1889.

In the photograph, Chekhov appears as a young man in his late twenties. He is seated, facing slightly to the viewer's left but looking directly at the camera with a composed, thoughtful expression. His hair is neatly combed, and he has a short, trimmed beard and mustache that give him a scholarly appearance.

He is dressed formally in a dark suit with a high-collared white shirt, typical of late 19th-century Russian intellectuals.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anton_Chekhov#/media/File:Anton_Chekhov_1889.jpg

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1y

Nineteen Eighty-Four and Brave New World should be read in tandem to understand today’s troubled times

Is there any past work of fiction that can help us make sense of today’s troubling trends?

By Laura Hood

https://theconversation.com/nineteen-eighty-four-and-brave-new-world-should-be-read-in-tandem-to-understand-todays-troubled-times-253872

#books #literature

Picture of George Orwell which appears in an old accreditation for the BNUJ.

Branch of the National Union of Journalists (BNUJ). - https://web.archive.org/web/20080608013945/http://www.netcharles.com/orwell/pics/orwell-unioncard.htm

The photo of George Orwell in the old BNUJ accreditation shows him with a serious, contemplative expression, wearing a suit and tie. His hair is neatly combed, and the image, likely monochrome, has a formal, passport-style quality.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Orwell#/media/File:George_Orwell_press_photo.jpg

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Huxley in 1954

Aldous Huxley - A Case For ESP, PK and PSI. Life Magazine. 11 January, 1954.

Aldous Huxley the English writer, novelist, philosopher was also a psychical researcher. He published an article in 1954 supporting extrasensory perception (ESP) and psychokinesis (PK) experiments.

The 1954 photo of Aldous Huxley, published in Life Magazine alongside his article on ESP and PK, depicts the writer in a reflective, intellectual pose. Huxley, tall and slender with a high forehead and distinctive glasses, appears deep in thought—his gaze calm yet piercing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aldous_Huxley#/media/File:Aldous_Huxley_psychical_researcher.png

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1y

Are we reading Machiavelli wrong?

What we’re missing in Machiavelli’s The Prince, explained by an expert.

by Sean Illing

https://www.vox.com/the-gray-area/414753/machiavelli-prince-authoritarian-critique-political-philosophy

Machiavelli at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1232

#books #literature

Portrait of Niccolò Machiavelli by Santi di Tito.

In this classic Renaissance portrait by Santi di Tito, Niccolò Machiavelli is depicted in a half-length pose, turned slightly to his left but with his gaze directed outward, engaging the viewer with a calm and penetrating expression. His face is oval-shaped, with high cheekbones, a prominent nose, and tightly drawn lips.

He wears a dark, simple tunic with a high collar and red sleeves underneath

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_of_Niccol%C3%B2_Machiavelli_by_Santi_di_Tito.jpg

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208d

The remarkable, unsung women behind Charles Dickens’s stories

Behind every great man, there’s a great woman, so the saying goes. Behind Charles Dickens, however, there were many great women supporting and inspiring him.

https://dickensmuseum.com/blogs/all-events/extra-ordinary-women?srsltid=AfmBOooj90nBCFiqaOK0RUhQmiGyZ7t3WeNj-IDMo4y7-uCa-kDQi-eW&utm_term=6991df7e3a06d68f5fddaf6e0eb53cf9&utm_campaign=Bookmarks&utm_source=esp&utm_medium=Email&CMP=bookmarks_email

Dickens at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/37

About Catherine Dickens:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Dickens

#books #literature

This is a portrait of Catherine Dickens (née Hogarth, 1815-1879), wife of Charles Dickens. Catherine married Charles in 1836 and bore him ten children over fifteen years. Despite being central to Dickens's domestic life during his most productive writing years, she has been largely written out of his story, particularly after their acrimonious separation in 1858.

Catherine is depicted in three-quarter view, seated and resting her arms on an ornate chair back with decorative ribbon or fabric draping. She wears an elegant off-shoulder with a fitted bodice, puffed sleeves, and flowing skirt. Her hair is arranged in the period's typical fashion—parted in the center and swept back into a braided bun with decorative elements.

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1y

Twentieth-Century Radical Scottish Gaelic Magazines and Contacts with Wales

A recording of Dr Petra Johana Poncarová’s talk, given on 22 May at the Centre for Advanced Welsh Celtic Studies

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiKkgWYyhW8

#Scottish #literature #magazines #20thcentury #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #Wales #Welsh #CelticStudies

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1y

Finding Common Ground: New Scots Stories
16 June, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh. Free, booking required

Join Finding Common Ground for a community walk & creative writing workshop as part of Refugee Festival Scotland. Discover unexpected connections between migration stories new & old; listen to seldom-heard voices; & find common ground in journeys across landscapes, languages, & literatures

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/finding-common-ground-new-scots-stories-tickets-1382461552719

#Scottish #literature #storytelling #refugees #migration #languages