This far north, the harvest happens late.
Rooks go clattering over the sycamores
whose shadows yawn after them, down to the river.
Uncut wheat staggers under its own weight…
—Dorothy Lawrenson, “September”
published in Painted, spoken 22 (2011)
This far north, the harvest happens late.
Rooks go clattering over the sycamores
whose shadows yawn after them, down to the river.
Uncut wheat staggers under its own weight…
—Dorothy Lawrenson, “September”
published in Painted, spoken 22 (2011)
The deid-hole’s a sma-boukit place for you.
You need tae be blawn aboot the cosmos
so’s your live matter mells wi the spaces
and you become the stour starns are made o…
—Alastair Mackie: In Memoriam Hugh MacDiarmid (1892–1978)
Christopher Murray Grieve – Hugh MacDiarmid – died #OTD, 9 September
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #HughMacDiarmid #InMemoriam
There are times when I think
of the knowledge we had as children:
the patterns we saw in number, or the spells
and recipes we had
for love and fear…
—John Burnside, “Being and Time”
published in THE LIGHT TRAP (Jonathan Cape, 2002)
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/being-and-time/
He moves the way light moves: now sudden,
racing up a field as sun clears cloud,
now unnoticed, leaching from the world
until you look up into dark…
—Sheenagh Pugh, “Him Again”
published in A Little Touch of Cliff in the Evening: New Writing Scotland 30 (ASL, 2012)
Behind us, Glencoe of the Slaughter,
Achnacone, field of dogs,
Achtriachan, where the water-bull
lurks among thin fish tickled by weed,
and the Great Herdsman of Etive
over us like a black axe…
—Alison Fell, “Rannoch Moor”
published in The Edinburgh Book of 20th-Century Scottish Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2005)
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Rannoch #RannochMoor #hiking #walking
On days when air was clarified by frost
and a translucent moon came close to earth
I’d hear the rhythms of pneumatic riveting hammers
in a high-tiered lecture room…
—James Aitchison, “Riveting”
Published in The Flight of the Turtle: New Writing Scotland 29 (ASL, 2011)
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #GlasgowUniversity #Clydeside #shipyards
Lying asleep walking
Last night I met my father
Who seemed pleased to see me.
He wanted to speak. I saw
His mouth saying something
But the dream had no sound…
—W.S. Graham, “To Alexander Graham”
published in Collected Poems 1942–1977 (Faber, 1979)
A poem for World Dream Day
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48732/to-alexander-graham
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #father #fathers #dream #dreams #dreaming #WorldDreamDay
Glasgow, late September and the city I spoke of
in another country (its fierce sandstone
burning, its bombast of finials built on the heads of slaves…
—Gerrie Fellows, “Dream Cities”
published in The Body in Space (Shearsman, 2014)
A poem for World Dream Day
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/dream-cities/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #NewZealand #dream #dreams #dreaming #WorldDreamDay
April, the last full fixture of the spring:
“Feet, Scottish, feet!” – they rucked the fear of God
Into Blackheath…
—“London Scottish”, by Mick Imlah (1956–2009) – born #OTD, 26 September
published in THE LOST LEADER (Faber, 2008)
1/5
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/london-scottish/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoetry #WW1 #rugby #LondonScottish #MickImlah
My brother is skull and skeleton now
empty of mind behind the brow
in ribs and pelvis empty space
bone-naked without a face…
—William Montgomerie, “Epitaph”
For 2nd Officer James S. Montgomerie of the S.S. Carsbreck, torpedoed off Gibraltar, 24th October 1941
Published in FROM THE LINE: Scottish war Poetry 1914–1945 (ASL, 2014)
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/from_the_line/
In front of me a girl with bare feet,
in a beribboned dress, picks white
flowers in a field somewhere near Pompeii…
—Stewart Conn, “Springtime”
published in IN THE KIBBLE PALACE (Bloodaxe, 1987)
Pompeii was destroyed possibly #OTD, 24 Oct, 79CE
“Flora”, from Stabiae, Villa of Ariadne inv. 8834, is held in the frescos collection of the Museo Archaeologico di Napoli
https://www.museoarcheologiconapoli.it/en/portfolio-item/frescoes/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Roman #archaeology #Pompeii
Back here, the iron line crosses future, past:
Then my father will surely be seen
Trekking the sodden, lonely land,
Weekenders, together –
—Jackie Kay, “Rannoch Loop”
published in BANTAM (Picador, 2017)
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/jackie-kay/bantam/9781509887927
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #hiking #Rannoch #Rannochmoor #walking #JackieKay
I want answers, but there are only the wild geese
Calling, high in the almost-dark, bearing south,
And me, stopped short, clutching a bag of groceries
On the doorstep of my not-quite home…
—Susan Mansfield, “Bearing South”
from The Rooftop Busker: New Writing Scotland 33 (ASL, 2015)
he was a technician
https://subspacewagon.systems/he-was-a-technician/
Algol, Part III
https://archive.org/details/algol-part-iii-by-richard-j-tilley
___
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https://saturation.earth
https://www.subspacewagon.io
https://www.poet.garden
https://www.exeunt.me
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He’s no artist.
His taste in clothes is more
dowdy than gaudy…
—Norman MacCaig, “Sparrow”
published in The Many Days: Selected Poems of Norman MacCaig (Polygon, 2010)
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-many-days/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #NormanMacCaig #birds #sparrows
In Gránada, in Gránada,
They dumbed the mou o a makar,
In Gránada, in Gránada,
They strak doun Garcia Lorca…
—“In Gránada, in Gránada”, by Sydney Goodsir Smith (1915–1975) – a major figure in the 20th-century Scottish renaissance, born #OTD, 26 Oct
1/4
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #20thcentury #Lorca
Rubbing a glistening circle
on the steamed-up window I framed
a pheasant in a field of mist…
—Edwin Morgan, “Aberdeen Train”
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #autumn #October #Aberdeen #EdwinMorgan
There are many traditions across the globe of using metaphorical poetic language to describe or boast about yourself. Here's a griot-style autobiographical #Poem about me. #Poetry #Oratory
"I am the oak that mocks the gale, born from the dust beside the grinding stone, rooted deep within the clearing of the ancient fortress wall.
My left limb danced a halting measure on the road, yet my swift feet swallowed the red earth, leaving trails of thunder before the sun had learned my name. (1/5)
Book of Truths
https://www.tilley.blog/book-of-truths/
First Truth
https://subspacewagon.systems/first-truth/
__
https://archive.org/details/visions-october-2026-by-richard-j-tilley
__
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Second Truth
https://subspacewagon.systems/second-truth/
__
https://archive.org/details/visions-october-2026-by-richard-j-tilley
__
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But gin the auld fowks’ tales are richt
An’ ghaists come hame on Hallow nicht,
O freend o’ freends! what wad I gie
To feel ye rax yer hand to me
Atween the dark an’ caun’le-licht?
—Violet Jacob, “Hallowe’en”
published in COUNTRY LIFE, 1920
Jacob’s only son, Harry, was killed at the Somme in 1916. This poem evokes the desperate sadness felt by so many in the aftermath of the First World War.
#Scottish #literature #Scots #Scotslanguage #Halloween #poem #poetry #warpoetry #WW1
A wife was sitting at her reel ae night;
And aye she sat, and aye she reeled, and aye she wished for company…
Sadie Stein recalls “The Strange Visitor” – an eerie Scots tale. Performed well it should cause “a scream of alarm”
1/2
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2013/01/16/the-stranger/
#Scottish #literature #Halloween #19thcentury #folklore #poem #poetry #performance
A boannie nicht for castin kale:
a fat mön vaegin owre Sannis,
a hale gadderie o laads an lasses…
—Christine De Luca, “Hallowe’en Hansel”
published in WAST WI DA VALKYRIES (Shetland Library, 1997)
Listen to Christine reading her poems online here:
https://www.christinedeluca.co.uk/pages/wast_wi_da_valkyries
#Scottish #literature #Shetland #Shetlandic #Scots #Scotslnguage #Halloween #poem #poetry
The speedy gleams the darkness swallow’d;
Loud, deep, & lang the thunder bellow’d:
That night, a child might understand,
The Deil had business on his hand…
—Robert Burns’s “Tam o’ Shanter”, read by Hamish MacDonald; illustrations by Gary Welsh
Happy Halloween!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAqVwCa_x5o
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #RobertBurns #18thcentury #TamOShanter #Scots #Scotslanguage
The Symphony of Tired Soot in Restraining Trembles
https://subspacewagon.systems/the-symphony-of-tired-soot-in-restraining-trembles/
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