Beyond ruined houses and a past
eroded by salt and marram grass
stretch miles of sand dunes
where as kids we hurled ourselves
into space …
—Eleanor Livingstone, “Breathless”
from In the Event of Fire: New Writing Scotland 27 (ASLS, 2009)
Beyond ruined houses and a past
eroded by salt and marram grass
stretch miles of sand dunes
where as kids we hurled ourselves
into space …
—Eleanor Livingstone, “Breathless”
from In the Event of Fire: New Writing Scotland 27 (ASLS, 2009)
bradan à linne
fadh à frith
craobh à coille
trì nithean
nach meàirle
ghabhail o nàdar…
—Aonghas MacNeacail, “trì nithean”
published in Laoidh an donais òig / Hymn to a young demon (Polygon, 2007)
#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #EarthDay #EarthDay2026 #poem #poetry #landrights
The sun’s been tint for weeks. Deid maybe.
Likely drooned. Water’s aaplace, teemin doon
gutters and branders, rinnin aff the slates,
floodin pavements. Fowk near droon…
—Ken Morrice, “Foo Mony Cubits?”
published in Selected Poems (Keith Murray, 1991)
https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/foo-mony-cubits/
#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #Aberdeenshire #rain
Not a red rose or a satin heart.
I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love…
—Carol Ann Duffy, “Valentine”
published in A Red Rose or a Satin Heart: An Anthology of Scottish Love Poems, @canongatebooks 2010
💝
#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #poem #poetry #womenwriters #lovepoem #CarolAnnDuffy
When you go,
if you go,
and I should want to die,
there’s nothing I’d be saved by
more than the time
you fell asleep in my arms…
—Edwin Morgan, “When You Go”
published in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/indexer?product=9781784109967
#Scottish #literature #ValentinesDay #LGBTQ #LGBTQplusHM #poem #poetry #Valentine #lovepoem #lovepoetry #EdwinMorgan
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
O, love, love, love!
Love is like a dizziness;
It winna let a poor body
Gang about his biziness!
—James Hogg (1770–1835), “Love is like a dizziness” 💝
#Scottish #literature #poetry #poem #ValentinesDay #Valentine #18thcentury #19thcentury #humour
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
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
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
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
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
“Multitudes” is a #haiku from Library on Fire, my 3rd volume of #poetry available at https://www.nihtgengapress.com/product/library-on-fire
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
There are
Ancient
Constellations
In your veins.
All wild things
Know the language
Of burning.
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
New 3”x 3” stickers available in the shop!The poem is “Become”, one of my favorites from Library on Fire. https://www.nihtgengapress.com/product/become-sticker. Free shipping in the US!
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
SHIPS: Live Poetry & Music
10 July, An Tobar, Mull – tickets from £8
A live evening of poetry & music with five acclaimed poets: Sharon Black, Leonie Charlton, Julie Antill, Jon Miller, & Cait O’Neill McCullagh.
https://www.antobarandmulltheatre.co.uk/whats-on/ec276n5cy0uxkyu4xc55hrskyopw6r
#Scottish #literature #poetry #Highlands #HighlandsandIslands
We needed it—and he stood there,
feet on the dry porch, saying rain,
cloud and skyful, the sound of drumming…
—Niall Campbell, “The Rainmaker”
published in POETRY (July/August 2020)
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/153822/the-rainmaker
Love rules. Love laughs. Love marches. Love is the wolf that guards the gate.
Love is the food of music, art, poetry. It fills us and fuels us and fires us to create.
Love is terror. Love is sweat. Love is bashed pillow, crumpled sheet, unenviable fate…
—Edwin Morgan, “Love”
A poem for Pride Month 🏳️🌈🏳️⚧️
published in A BOOK OF LIVES (Carcanet, 2011)
https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781857549188/a-book-of-lives/
#Scottish #literature #EdwinMorgan #poem #poetry #love #lovepoem #loveislove #Pride #PrideMonth #PrideMonth2025
Tenderness is mandatory.
Careless lurches may draw blood,
enthusiasms leave abrasions,
excessive ardour has been known
to snap off spinal plates…
—“The Mating of Dinosaurs”, by William Oliphant (1920–2004)
published in The Mating of Dinosaurs (Taranis Books, 1992)
Today, 1 June, is Dinosaur Day 🦖
The poems of Arthur Conan Doyle
16 September, online – pay what you can
Although best known for his Sherlock Holmes stories, Arthur Conan Doyle also published several volumes of verse. While his poetry never achieved the same level of acclaim as his fiction, it remains an important part of his literary legacy, & The Live Canon ensemble will perform a selection of his poems
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-poems-of-arthur-conan-doyle-tickets-1284197211429
How Losing a Poetry Competition Launched Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Career
By Nava Atlas
https://www.literaryladiesguide.com/classic-women-authors-poetry/losing-poetry-competition-millay/
Edna St. Vincent Millay at PG:
https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/author/70
"Remnants", a volume of Haiku and Senryu, available for paperback and e-reader, through:
Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/2dyxuks6
Rakuten Kobo: https://tinyurl.com/3vu3yr86
Amazon Author Home: https://tinyurl.com/fc3njxup
DM me to enquire about signed copies (prices will vary according to location).
#IndieAuthor #SJAshcroftsPoems #poems #poetry #PoetryCommunity #MyWordsMyWork