saints

Today, 13 January, is the Feast Day of St Mungo (AKA St Kentigern), patron saint of Glasgow. Edwin Morgan’s “Colloquy in Glaschu” imagines a conversation between St Mungo & St Columba.

From CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

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

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Colloquy in Glaschu
by Edwin Morgan

God but le son du cor, Columba sighed
to Kentigern, est triste au fond silvarum!
Frater, said Kentigern, I see no harm.
J'aime le son du cor, when day has died,
deep in the bois, and oystercatchers rise
before the fowler as he trudges home
and sermo lupi loosens the grey loam.
À I’horizon lointain is paradise,
abest silentium, le cor éclate –
– et meurt, Columba mused, but Kentigern
replied, renaît et se prolonge. The cell
is filled with song. Outside, puer cantat.
Veni venator sings the gallus kern.
The saints dip startled cups in Mungo’s well.

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218d

Where’s Brude? Where’s Brude?
So many souls to be saved!

—Edwin Morgan, “Columba’s Song”
in CENTENARY SELECTED POEMS (Carcanet, 2020)

Today, 9 June, is the feast day of St Columba (c.521–597), who led the Irish monastic missions to Dál Riata & the kingdoms of the Picts

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https://www.carcanet.co.uk/9781784109967/centenary-selected-poems/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #EdwinMorgan #saints #StColumba

Columba's Song
by Edwin Morgan

Where's Brude? Where's Brude?
So many souls to be saved!
The bracken is thick, the wildcat is quick,
the foxes dance in the moonlight,
the salmon dance in the waters,
the adders dance in the thick brown bracken.
Where's Brude? Where's man?
There's too much nature here,
eagles and deer,
but where's the mind and where's the soul?
Show me your kings, your women, the man of the plough.
And cry me to your cradles.
It wasn't for a fox or an eagle I set sail!

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