just to see how you’re
faring up there
with little company
just the odd bat or hare
that careers around
‘turning the world’
so you tell me…
—Kathleen Jamie, “Considering a Hike to Yon Tree”
in the London Review of Books, 24 July 2025
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n13/kathleen-jamie/considering-a-hike-to-yon-tree
[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
W. S. Graham
Inscribed by the author on the flyleaf of a copy of THE WHITE THRESHOLD belonging to Sheila Lanyon, widow of the late painter Peter Lanyon. The poem is dated June 18, 1966 and the “second summer” referred to is the second since Peter’s death, after a gliding accident, on August 31, 1964.
Laid-back in orbit, they found their minds.
They found their minds were very clean and clear.
Clear crystals in swarms outside were their fireflies and larks.
Larks they were in lift-off, swallows in soaring…
—Edwin Morgan, “A Home in Space”
from CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)
#OTD, 20 July, 1969, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/
#Scottish #literature #MoonLanding #MoonLandingDay #poem #poetry #astronauts #scifi #scifipoem #scifipoetry
When all this is over I mean
to travel north, by the high
drove roads and cart tracks
probably in June,
with the gentle dog-roses
flourishing beside me…
—Kathleen Jamie, “Lochan”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Picador, 2018)
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/selected-poems/9781509882953
Seo mi, ma tha sibh gam aithnicheadh, neo fiù’s mura h-eil,
a’ coimhead oirrbh bho oir an rìan-grèine,
mar gum b’e aonaran a bh’unnam
a’ fuireach a-muigh ràthad na mòintich
le prosbaig aig gach uinneag…
—Pàdraig MacAoidh, “Pluto”
Today, 18 February, is Pluto Day!
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/pluto/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #Pluto #PlutoDay #planet #minorplanet #solarsystem #astronomy
Did Shakespeare Write Hamlet While He Was Stoned?
"Sam Kelly Explores the Potential Influence of Cannabis on the Bard’s Prolific Literary Output"
https://lithub.com/did-shakespeare-write-hamlet-while-he-was-stoned/
Shakespeare at PG
Come all ye lovers and affairs,
singles, discrete souls, and bears,
straightest of straights, bentest of bents,
carbolic scrub, Armani scents…
—Edwin Morgan, “G.G.L.C.”
A poem composed for the opening of the Glasgow Gay & Lesbian Centre, 1995
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #Pride #PrideDay #InternationalPrideDay #LGBTQ
Queerness in Scotland has always existed, hidden in medieval manuscripts, coded in Jacobite poetry, or expressed through the arts. In the first of a 3-part series, the National Galleries of Scotland explores queer artforms & artists from Scotland, past & present
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKBCxUmPBho
#Scottish #literature #poetry #art #manuscripts #medieval #18thcentury #history #jacobites #queerhistory #queerness #Pride #PrideDay #InternationalPrideDay #LGBTQ
Scotland’s a sense of change, an endless
becoming for which there was never a kind
of wholeness or ultimate category.
Scotland’s an attitude of mind.
—“Speaking of Scotland” by Maurice Lindsay (1918–2009) – born #OTD, 21 July
Published in COLLECTED POEMS 1940–1990 (AUP 1990)
1/2
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/speaking-scotland/
The Orphic Hymns are a collection of 87 hymns in ancient Greek, addressed to various deities.
Attributed in antiquity to the mythical poet Orpheus, they were composed in Asia Minor, most likely around the 2nd or 3rd centuries AD, and seem to have belonged to a cult community which used them in ritual. The collection is preceded by a proem in which Orpheus addresses the legendary poet Musaeus.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orphic_Hymns
Greek Mythology in Literature at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/subject/17235
Oh ye, wha in your oors o ease,
Are fashed wi golochs, mauks, an flees,
Fell stingin wasps an bumble bees,
Tak tent o this:
There’s ae sma pest that’s waur nor these
To mar your bliss…
—W.R. Darling, “The Pest”
published in Oor Mither Tongue: An Anthology of Scots Vernacular Verse (Alexander Gardner, 1937)
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #midge #midges
At the Canongate Wall
“Stone suits the poetry. Or perhaps it’s the other way round. I think poetry suits stone, more than it suits paper, certainly more than it suits a screen. The poetry releases something latent in the stone.”
Kathleen Jamie visits the Canongate Wall in Edinburgh.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2025/june/at-the-canongate-wall
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #scottishparliament #publicart
This photo’s saying nothing, is black and white, opaque.
A frozen moment, not a memory.
The boyfriend with the Pentax took it for the sake
Of taking it…
—Liz Lochhead, “Photograph, Art Student, Female, Working Class, 1966”
published in FUGITIVE COLOURS (Birlinn, 2016)
29 June is #NationalCameraDay
https://birlinn.co.uk/product/fugitive-colours/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #1960s #photograph #photography #womenwriters
It was upon a Lammas night,
When corn rigs are bonie,
Beneath the moon’s unclouded light,
I held awa to Annie…
—Robert Burns, “Corn Rigs”
pages from Robert Burns: Selected Poems & Songs (OUP, 2013)
Today, 1 August, is Lammas Day
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/selected-poems-and-songs-9780199682324?cc=gb&lang=en&
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #song #18thcentury #folksong #RobertBurns #Lammas #LammasDay #romanticism #Scots #Scotslanguage
WRITERS!
Submissions are invited to NEW WRITING SCOTLAND 44! We want poetry & prose in English, Gaelic, & Scots from writers who are Scottish by residence, birth, or inclination. All successful contributors are paid – deadline 31 Oct!
@writingcommunity
Submit free via Submittable 👇
https://nws.submittable.com/submit
#Scottish #literature #writing #WritingCommunity #IAmWriting #poetry #shortfiction #shortstories #Scots #Scotslanguage #Gaelic #Gaidhlig
A Celebration of Scottish Football, Scots Poetry & Heritage
5 March, Bridge of Allan Library. Free, booking essential.
With author & poet Hamish MacDonald, & Aoife McKenna, curator at The Smith Art Gallery & Museum
#Scottish #literature #history #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #football #ScottishFootball #SportsHistory
so we’re doing the 1960s and leah who’s eleven
nearly twelve says what’s vietnam sir and scott
who has already turned twelve but looks about eight
says it’s in korea isn’t it sir…
—Mark Russell, “Drama”
published in With Their Best Clothes On: New Writing Scotland 36 (ASL, 2018)
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws36/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #drama #teaching #teachers
Afro-Scottish Poetry Event 2025
25 July, Glasgow. Tickets £0–£10
A multicultural evening of poetry, music, & storytelling that celebrates African & Scottish identities through powerful performances. Created & curated by Chisom Okoronkwo with U Belong Glasgow
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/afro-scottish-poetry-event-2025-tickets-1396145632169
#Scottish #African #literature #poetry #storytelling #performance #identity #Glasgow #AfroScottish
Every mid-February
those first days arrive
when the sun rises
higher than the Black
Hill at last…
—Kathleen Jamie, “The Dash”
published in THE OVERHAUL (Picador, 2012)
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/the-overhaul/9781447202042
“To anyone reading this who is just starting out or feeling unsure, I want to say: keep going. Poetry needs your voice”
Nazaret Ranea on her journey from being one of the Scottish Poetry Library’s Young Makars to publishing her first poetry collection with Drunk Muse Press
The First Battle of the Somme began #OTD, 1 July, 1916. Violet Jacob’s only child, Harry, was killed in action in the battle. Jacob’s war poems are some of the most poignant & affecting works from the Home Front.
“To A.H.J.”, from MORE SONGS OF ANGUS & OTHERS (1918)
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoem #warpoetry #Somme #WW1 #FirstWorldwar
'The Way the Sky Might Taste'
The bite of a softened cardamom pod
in a spoonful of Tikka Masala.
Tang of copper, caperberry
other berries, too:
a rasp, a blue, a lingon, elder
lit with lemon, thin slice of moon.
The breath of a first kiss
sweet and deeply surprising.
Dirt on the youngest tongue, the red
flesh of a torn fig eaten
straight from the tree,
the constellation of wings
as champagne leaves the flute.
~~ by Ellen Rowland from 'The Wonder of Small Things'
The Battle of Harlaw was fought #OTD, 24 July, 1411. Before the battle the Clan Donald bard Lachlann Mòr MacMhuirich composed this brosnachadh or incitement to battle. Each line contains 2 describing words, & each successive pair of lines all begin with the same letter while retaining the 7-syllable format of each line. The poet works through the entire Gaelic alphabet in sequence.
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https://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/inverurie/battleofharlaw/index.html
#Scottish #literature #poetry #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #medieval #history #battle
Let us now give thanks
for these salt-blown
wind-burned pastures
where oatgrass and timothy
shrink from the harrow of the sea…
—John Glenday, “A Westray Prayer”
in SELECTED POEMS (Picador 2020)
John Glenday reads this poem on the Poetry Archive:
https://poetryarchive.org/poem/westray-prayer/
It clamps itself to a rock, like a limpet,
And creeps up and down in a tide of people,
Hardly ever stranded in a tideless sabbath:
A pilgrimage place where all hymns are jubilant…
—Norman MacCaig, “A.K.’s Summer Hut”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MACCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)
![[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
by W. S. Graham
Sheila, we speak here on the fly
Leaf of a book which was myself
A good few graves ago.
Now I am maintained by other
Words for better or for worse
To whisper my hello.
The seasons turn. Threshold on thresh
Hold forms continually and falls
Under grief’s lonely hammer.
What did you say? I thought between
These fly leaf words I heard you speak
Out of your Second Summer.
The summer chimes and turns its blue
Dragon-flying eyes to see
We two are not afraid.
Hello, Sheila, I can hear
Your breath on the other side of the word
And see you turn your head.](/proxy/post_attachment/772057/ca5f5c2a8d.jpg "[To Sheila Lanyon, on the Flyleaf of a Book]
by W. S. Graham
Sheila, we speak here on the fly
Leaf of a book which was myself
A good few graves ago.
Now I am maintained by other
Words for better or for worse
To whisper my hello.
The seasons turn. Threshold on thresh
Hold forms continually and falls
Under grief’s lonely hammer.
What did you say? I thought between
These fly leaf words I heard you speak
Out of your Second Summer.
The summer chimes and turns its blue
Dragon-flying eyes to see
We two are not afraid.
Hello, Sheila, I can hear
Your breath on the other side of the word
And see you turn your head.")
