“Don’t you find
the use of phonetic urban dialect
rather constrictive?”
—Tom Leonard, “Fathers and Sons”
published in Intimate Voices: Selected Work, 1965–1983 (Galloping Dog Press, 1984)
“Don’t you find
the use of phonetic urban dialect
rather constrictive?”
—Tom Leonard, “Fathers and Sons”
published in Intimate Voices: Selected Work, 1965–1983 (Galloping Dog Press, 1984)
this is thi
six a clock
news thi
man said n
thi reason
a talk wia
BBC accent
iz coz yi
widny wahnt
mi ti talk
aboot thi
trooth wia
voice lik
wanna yoo
scruff. if
a toktaboot
thi trooth
lik wanna yoo
scruff yi
widny thingk
it wuz troo.
jist wanna yoo
scruff tokn.
—Tom Leonard, “The Six O’Clock News”
🎂 Tom Leonard, 22 Aug 1944
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #Glaswegian #voice #Scots #Scotslanguage #TomLeonard
Starlings return
black commas spill from the sky
festooning rooftops
like coal-coloured bunting…
—Nalini Paul, “August”
published in The Flight of the Turtle: New Writing Scotland 29 (ASL, 2011)
Brutalised Africans made Glasgow
amazing disgrace, how sweet the civic amnesia…
mansions without plaques
unrevised street names
no memorial.
—Kate Tough, “People Made Glasgow”
“A contemporary sickness has its roots in unredressed wrongs”
Today, 23 August, is the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/people-made-glasgow/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Glasgow #slavery #abolition #SlaveryHistory #RememberSlavery
John Maclean (1879–1923), socialist & Red Clydesider, was born #OTD, 24 August
Listen to Hamish Henderson’s “The John Maclean March”, sung by Dick Gaughan (1972)
✊
1/3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uAs5cyy5EM
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #song #folksong #socialism #Scotland #workingclass #history #labourhistory #RedClydeside #HamishHenderson #JohnMaclean
…but witness these brittle August
bluebells casting seed,
like tiny hearts in caskets
tossed onto a battle ground.
—Kathleen Jamie, “Reliquary”
published in THE TREE HOUSE (Picador, 2004)
1/4
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/kathleen-jamie/the-tree-house/9781509891825
A CHAOS OF LIGHT
New Writing Scotland 43
Ed. by Kirstin Innes, Chris Powici & Niall O’Gallagher
“writing that unsettles and challenges, that questions assumptions and gets us to look at, when it feels so much less painful to look away… A rich, boisterous, tender, charming, angry, sorrowful, gleeful mix”
Available now from all good bookshops!
@bookstodon
@writingcommunity
https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/newwriting/nws43/
#Scottish #literature #poetry #shortstories #shortfiction #newwriting #writingcommunity
Some days were running legs and joy
and old men telling tomorrow would be
a fine day surely: for sky was red
at setting of sun between the hills…
—Iain Crichton Smith, “Some days were running legs”
published in Deer on the High Hills (Carcanet 2021)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/
In his darkroom he is finally alone
with spools of suffering set out in ordered rows.
The only light is red and softly glows,
as though this were a church and he
a priest preparing to intone a Mass.
Belfast. Beirut. Phnom Penh. All flesh is grass.
—Carol Ann Duffy, “War Photographer”
published in COLLECTED POEMS (Picador, 2019)
https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/carol-ann-duffy/collected-poems/9781447231752
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoetry #photography #journalism
Old gods and goddesses who have lived so long
Through time and never found eternity,
Fettered by wasting wood and hollowing hill,
You should have fled our ever-dying song…
—Edwin Muir, “To the Old Gods”
📷 Ballachulish Figure, c728–524 BCE
https://www.nms.ac.uk/discover-catalogue/a-mysterious-iron-age-figure-from-ballachulish
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #archaeology #IronAge #EdwinMuir
I pulled all my mother’s expectations
with me, like a child’s kite, giddy with stir
of spring…
—Lynn Valentine, “St Kilda Crossing”
from DON’T. EVEN. ASK. TOO. HOT.: New Writing Scotland 42 (ASL, 2024)
Today, 29 August, marks the 95th anniversary of the final evacuation of St Kilda. People had lived there for over 2000 years but, by the early 20th century, life had become too difficult to sustain. In 1930 the islanders petitioned for help to leave
Whan du telt me hoo du thowt o ‘luck’
as nae mair as chance, de happy hubbelskju
o aentropie, I thowt onnly o de ben-end
o my grandmidder’s hoose an aa her talismans
o tat…
—Roseanne Watt, “Lukkie”
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/lukkie/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Shetland #Shetlandic #Scots #Scotslanguage
An lùib na droighne
anns an dris-choille
tha meas an fhoghair
toradh mo ghràidh…
—Niall O’Gallagher, “Crindreas”
Page Against the Machine: On the Poetics of AI Refusal
Pip Thornton documents and debates some of the outputs of ‘Writing the Wrongs of AI’, a project which explored creative ways to demonstrate the power that human words, poetics and writing might have in resisting the influence of artificial intelligence in the literary sphere and beyond.
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
The mile-high buildings flashed, flushed, greyed, went dark,
greyed, flushed, flashed, chameleons under flak
of cloud and sun…
—Edwin Morgan, “Clydegrad”
CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS, Carcanet 2020
Today, 3 September, is Skyscraper Day
1/2
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/
#Scottish #literature #Glasgow #poem #poetry #ConcretePoetry #Skyscraper #SkyscraperDay
English author, poet, and gardener Vita Sackville-West was born #OTD in 1892.
She published more than a dozen collections of poetry and 13 novels during her life. She was twice awarded the Hawthornden Prize for Imaginative Literature: in 1927 for her pastoral epic, The Land, & in 1933 for her Collected Poems. She was the inspiration for the protagonist of Orlando: A Biography, by her friend & lover Virginia Woolf.
Vita Sackville-West at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/34850
He moves the way light moves: now sudden,
racing up a field as sun clears cloud…
—Sheenagh Pugh, “Him Again”
Published in A Little Touch of Cliff in the Evening: New Writing Scotland 30 (ASL, 2012)
“SANGSCHAW… gave other writers permission to push the boundaries of Scots as a language of literature, capable of expressing deep thought and not just for light comedy or mawkish whimsy”
Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s first book
https://www.thenational.scot/culture/25436484.100-year-tribute-hugh-macdiarmid-marking-crucial-work/
#Scottish #literature #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #20thcentury #MacDiarmid #HughMacDiarmid
The glitter of water and the wake…
Heading for University in Aberdeen.
It’s an autumn morning. I am seventeen.
Above the Isle of Skye the dawn’s a flag
of red infuriate ore…
—Iain Crichton Smith, “Aberdeen University 1945–49 (1)”
in DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS, ed. by John Greening (Carcanet, 2021)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781800170940/deer-on-the-high-hills/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #IainCrichtonSmith #Skye #Aberdeen
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 #MacDiarmid #HughMacDiarmid
Currently on BBC Sounds: Ian McMillan hosts poets Liz Lochhead, Robert Crawford & Hannah Lavery at the Edinburgh Festival
Hannah Lavery performs “Edinburgh is a Story”; “My Work is Loving the World”; & “Miss Has Started Using Sunbeds”
Robert Crawford reads “Camera Obscura” & “Mons Meg”
Liz Lochhead reads a selection of poems including “Trouble Is Not My Middle Name”; “Coming To Poetry”; & “Song For A Dirty Diva”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m002htf2
It's a double book launch!
Mandy Hager and I are launching our new books at 6pm on Wednesday 1 October at Unity Books, Wellington - my new poetry collection "Dracula in the Colonies" and her new novel "Revenge and Rabbit Holes"!
Check out the details here: https://www.timjonesbooks.co.nz/2025/09/04/youre-invited-to-a-double-book-launch-on-wednesday-1-october-dracula-in-the-colonies-by-tim-jones-and-revenge-and-rabbit-holes-by-mandy-hager/
I hope you can come along! Many thanks to The Cuba Press for publishing both books, and to Unity Books Wellington for hosting the launch.
Can't make the launch? You can pre-order Dracula in the Colonies here: https://thecubapress.nz/shop/dracula-in-the-colonies/
English novelist and poet Charlotte Brontë died #OTD in 1855.
She is best known for her novel Jane Eyre, which she published under the gender neutral pen name Currer Bell. Along with "Jane Eyre," her other notable works include "Shirley" (1849) and "Villette" (1853). Brontë's writing is celebrated for its exploration of social issues, particularly the role of women in Victorian society.
Books by Charlotte Brontë at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/408
Spanish poet and man of letters Manuel José Quintana was born #OTD in 1772.
Quintana was known for his eloquent poetry and his active involvement in the political and cultural affairs of his time. One of Quintana's most famous works is his poem "La Pelayo," which celebrates the victory of the Spanish forces led by Pelayo over the Moors in the Battle of Covadonga in 722 AD.
Books by Manuel José Quintana at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/search/?query=Manuel+Jos%C3%A9+Quintana&submit_search=Go%21