Eggplant.place

45d

He lacks the ordnance of words.
A self-portrait shows
stitches where his mouth should be;
eyes like empty casings.
He left a part of himself in the desert,
this ultra-Marine…

—Sandra Ireland, “Ultramarine”
published in New Writing Scotland 36 (2018)

#RemembranceSunday #Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #trauma

Sandra Ireland
Ultramarine

Trauma can affect the non-verbal
part of the brain. Art can free feelings of loss
and grief and pain from the subconscious,
aiding vocalisation.

He lacks the ordnance of words.
A self-portrait shows
stitches where his mouth should be;
eyes like empty casings.
He left a part of himself
in the desert,
this ultra-Marine,
the part which glows
Tyrian Purple.

Now he is bone black inside;
loaded with dark pigment;
aggregates
to be ground down and
made smooth with linseed words.
Time heals.
Give yourself time.

Time is just a jumbled mix
on his palette;
there was a lot of ochre out there,
and green earth and
sometimes, now he’s home,
he feels the trickle
of warm vermilion
seeping into
his boots.

ALT

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44d

Ravens are kekklin’ prophecies o’ woe,
Pyots in black an’ white spiel superstitions,
The rooks mak’ bedlam i’ the elms below,
An’ saft-winged hoolets plan their midnicht missions…

—Helen Cruickshank, “Corstorphine Woods”
pulished in A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS (ASL, 2017)

https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/volumes/a-kist-o-skinlan-things/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Scots #Scotslanguage #naturewriting

Helen Cruickshank
Corstorphine Woods

Ravens are kekklin’ prophecies o’ woe,
Pyots in black an’ white spiel superstitions,
The rooks mak’ bedlam i’ the elms below,
An’ saft-winged hoolets plan their midnicht missions.

Amang the haws an’ brambles whinchats clink,
The blue-tits flit amang their ferny covers,
The greedy gulls ahint the ploo-tail sink,
An’ hidden cushats croodle low like lovers.

Heich i’ the frosty air, uneirdly cries
Tell that a gaggle o’ wild geese are flightin’—
Luik! there they are against the parchment skies,
Like movin’ brush o’ ancient Chinese writin’.

Near hame, the ruif-heid raws o’ stirlins haud
Their evenin’ guild o’ scandal and o’ chatter,
And sparrows, randy gossips, rogue or jaud,
Scavenge their hindmost crumb wi’ fuss an’ clatter.

And, as I roond the corner, best of a’,
The mavis, singing on my gavel wa’—
Happy am I, altho’ I bide my lane,
To ha’e a singin’ hert that’s a’ my ain.

ALT

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45d

Ethnomusicologist, photographer, folklorist, & scholar Margaret Fay Shaw (1903–2004) was born #OTD, 9 Nov. She gave up a privileged upbringing & classical music training in 1920s New York to help build the first proper archive of traditional Hebridean song & folklore

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000rmks

#Scottish #literature #music #song #folklore #Hebrides #Gaelic #Gaidhlig #ethnology #photography

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41d

Am I really home? A Journey Through the Literary Voices of Italian Scottish Women
25 Nov, Edinburgh – free, ticketed

Through storytelling, poetry, & prose, four widely published Italian Scottish women writers will describe their diverse journeys of navigating, rooting, & belonging

https://iicedimburgo.esteri.it/en/gli_eventi/calendario/am-i-really-home-a-journey-through-the-literary-voices-of-italian-scottish-women/

#Scottish #literature #ScottishItalian #identity #culturalidentity #belonging #womenwriters

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41d

“In crime, as in all life, nothing is fixed or certain. Put another way, it is part of the mystery of being, which has its origin in religious faith, & Stevenson’s stories abound in mysteries”

SINS & FOLLIES
Three Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson

🗡️ “A Lodging for the Night”
🪞 “Markheim”
💀 “The Body-Snatcher”

Download the free ebook

@bookstodon

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https://asls.org.uk/publications/books/free-publications/sins-and-follies-2/

#Scottish #literature #RobertLouisStevenson #ShortStories #CrimeFiction #19thcentury #Victorian #gothic #RLSDay

Book cover

Sins and Follies

Three stories
by
Robert Louis Stevenson

ALT

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41d

“It is an RLS hallmark, the quicksilver evolution of thought and the fabular turn, the victory of original perception”

—Amdrew O’Hagan stays overnight in Robert Louis Stevenson’s childhood home, 17 Heriot Row, Edinburgh – via the London Review of Books

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n01/andrew-o-hagan/diary

#Scottish #literature #RobertLouisStevenson #Edinburgh #RLSDay

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43d

Some one was singing
Up a twisty stair,
A fragment of a song,
One sweet, spring day,
When twelve o’clock was ringing,
Through the sunny square…

—Marion Angus (1865–1946), “Remembrance Day”
first published in THE LILT AND OTHER VERSES (1922)

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #warpoetry #WW1 #RemembranceDay

Remembrance Day
Marion Angus

Some one was singing
Up a twisty stair,
A fragment of a song,
One sweet, spring day,
When twelve o’clock was ringing,
Through the sunny square—

‘There was a lad baith frank and free,
Cam’ doon the bonnie banks o’ Dee
Wi’ tartan plaid and buckled shoon,
An’ he’ll come nae mair to oor toon.—

‘He dwells within a far countree,
Where great ones do him courtesie,
They’ve gien him a golden croon,
An’ he’ll come nae mair to oor toon.’—

No one is singing
Up the twisty stair.
Quiet as a sacrament
The November day.

Can’t you hear it swinging,
The little ghostly air?—
Hear it sadly stray
Through the misty square,
In and out a doorway,
Up a twisty stair—
Tartan plaid and buckled shoon,
He’ll come nae mair to oor toon.

ALT

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43d

Hamish Henderson (1919–2002) – poet, soldier, intellectual, activist, songwriter – was born #OTD, 11 Nov. A hugely important figure in Scottish culture, Henderson fought in North Africa & Italy in WW2. A 🎂🧵

There were no gods and precious few heroes…
—“Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica”

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#Scottish #literature #HamishHenderson #20thcentury #culture #poetry #poem #warpoetry #WW2 #RemembranceDay

Hamish Henderson
from Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica

FIRST ELEGY
End of a Campaign

There are many dead in the brutish desert, who lie uneasy
among the scrub in this landscape of half-wit
stunted ill-will. For the dead land is insatiate
and necrophilous. The sand is blowing about still.
Many who for various reasons, or because of mere unanswerable compulsion, came here
and fought among the clutching gravestones, shivered and sweated,
cried out, suffered thirst, were stoically silent, cursed
the spittering machine-guns, were homesick for Europe
and fast embedded in quicksand of Africa agonised and died.
And sleep now. Sleep here the sleep of the dust.

There were our own, there were the others.
Their deaths were like their lives, human and animal.
There were no gods and precious few heroes.
What they regretted when they died had nothing to do with race and leader, realm indivisible,
laboured Augustan speeches or vague imperial heritage.
(They saw through that guff before the axe fell.) Their longing turned to
the lost world glimpsed in the memory of letters:
an evening at the pictures in the friendly dark,
two knowing conspirators smiling and whispering secrets; or else
a family gathering in the homely kitchen
with Mum so proud of her boys in uniform: their thoughts trembled
between moments of estrangement, and ecstatic moments
of reconciliation: and their desire

ALT

crucified itself against the unutterable shadow of someone
whose photo was in their wallets.
Then death made his incision.

There were our own, there were the others.
Therefore, minding the great word of Glencoe’s
son, that we should not disfigure ourselves
with villainy of hatred; and seeing that all
have gone down like curs into anonymous silence,
I will bear witness for I knew the others.
Seeing that littoral and interior are alike indifferent
and the birds are drawn again to our welcoming north
why should I not sing them, the dead, the innocent?

ALT

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40d

Norman MacCaig (1910–1996) was born #OTD, 14 November. A self-described “Zen Calvinist”, when asked how long it took him to write a poem he would reply “one cigarette – or two for a long one”

A 🎂🧵

“Toad”
published in THE POEMS OF NORMAN MacCAIG (Birlinn, 2009)

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https://birlinn.co.uk/product/the-poems-of-norman-maccaig/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #20thcentury #NormanMacCaig

Toad
by Norman MacCaig

Stop looking like a purse. How could a purse
squeeze under the rickety door and sit,
full of satisfaction, in a man’s house?

You clamber towards me on your four corners –
right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot.

I love you for being a toad,
for crawling like a Japanese wrestler,
and for not being frightened.

I put you in my purse hand, not shutting it,
and set you down outside directly under
every star.

A jewel in your head? Toad,
you’ve put one in mine,
a tiny radiance in a dark place.

ALT

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42d

John Maclean: All that life can give us
19 Nov, University of Stirling – free

Author & poet Henry Bell will discuss his creative & historical work around Scottish socialist John Maclean, followed by an open archive and poetry reading

#Scottish #literature #poetry #history #Labourhistory #socialism #RedClydeside #JohnMaclean

A striking black, red, and white poster for the event

JOHN MACLEAN: ALL THAT LIFE CAN GIVE US.
A TALK BY HENRY BELL

Archives and Special Collections and the Creative Histories Research Group present a talk and poetry reading with award-winning author Henry Bell on
Scottish socialist John Maclean

WEDNESDAY 19* NOVEMBER
UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
SYMPOSIUM JISC HUB LEVEL 3, 3-4PM
POETRY READING LEVEL 2, 4-5PM
REFRESHMENTS PROVIDED

ALT

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1y

A birthday 🧵 for Violet Jacob (1863–1946) – poet, novelist, short story writer, & key figure in the 20th-century Scottish renaissance & #Scots language revival – born #OTD, 1 September

#Scottish #literature #Scotslanguage #19thCentury #20thcentury #WomenWriters
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https://www.scottishwomenwritersontheweb.net/writers-a-to-z/violet-jacob

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41d

The Man Who Gave Away His Birthday – a Useless Information podcast

Robert Louis Stevenson was born #OTD, 13 November – but it’s not, strictly speaking, his birthday: in 1891 he gave the day to Annie Ide, the 14-year-old daughter of the US Commissioner to Samoa, who was unfortunate enough to have been born on Christmas Day

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https://uselessinformation.org/annie-louisa-ide-cockran/

#Scottish #literature #19thCentury #Victorian #RobertLouisStevenson #RLSDay

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37d

Tales of a Grandmother: Female Literary Agency & its Echoes in Scotland’s Cultural Memory in the Age of Scott
25 Nov, Glasgow University & online. Free

Walter Scott’s shadow eclipsed most of his contemporary writers in Scotland’s cultural memory of the early 19th century. Leonie Jungen investigates CLAN-ALBIN by Christian Isobel Johnstone (1781–1857), published one year after Scott’s WAVERLEY

@litstudies

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leonie-jungen-tales-of-a-grandmother-tickets-1700991755129

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #WalterScott #womenwriters

Edited 37d ago

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39d

McIntosh Lecture: “Scots as a Cinderella Language”
9 December, Glasgow – free

Professor Joanna Kopaczyk-McPherson will ask how has the story of Scots been told, & what are the perceptions created.

This lecture is sponsored by the Scottish Text Society. All are welcome to attend.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mcintosh-lecture-scots-as-a-cinderella-language-tickets-1968052449856

#Scottish #Scots #language #Scotslanguage #minoritylanguage

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37d

Look now, look quick – a shooting star!
Make your wish! It’s very far
From here to where the active light
Set out and streaked across a night
In Glasgow’s greatly dark November…

—Edwin Morgan, “Leonids”
in the London Review of Books, June 2000

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n12/edwin-morgan/four-poems

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #astronomy #leonids #meteor #EdwinMorgan

Leonids
by Edwin Morgan

Look now, look quick – a shooting star!
Make your wish! It’s very far
From here to where the active light
Set out and streaked across a night
In Glasgow’s greatly dark November
To die there, a supernal ember.
What was your wish? You wanted more?
It’s granted! Up there is a store
Of light. It’s breaking now in showers
Not of stars but meteors,
Spark after spark, scattering, dying,
You could send your wishes flying
In thousands, born, reborn, delighting
To be part of that bright sighting
Which disappears and yet appears
Again in our unlonely years.

ALT

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38d

Outlaw, fiddler, & folk hero James Macpherson (c.1675–1700) was hanged #OTD, 16 November, for being Romani. Prior to his execution Macpherson composed his famous “Rant”. Macpherson sang this lament on the gallows & smashed his fiddle before meeting his fate

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https://blog.historicenvironment.scot/2022/06/the-loss-of-a-son-jamie-macpherson-and-his-gypsy-heritage/

#Scottish #literature #history #18thcentury #earlymodern #Romani #poem #poetry #song #folksong

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38d

Don Roberto: the Adventure of Being Cunninghame Graham
18 Nov, Carnoustie – free

Jamie Jauncey talks about his extraordinary great-great-uncle Robert Bontine Cunninghame Graham – traveller, adventurer, politician, writer, etc. etc. – & asks why RBCG is so overlooked today

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/don-roberto-the-adventure-of-being-cunninghame-graham-tickets-1674565473409

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #20thcentury

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38d

Elspeth Barker (1940–2022) was born #OTD, 16 Nov

Maggie O’Farrell called Barker’s classic O CALEDONIA “one of those books you proselytize about… I once decided to become friends with someone on the sole basis that she named [it] as her favourite book”

A 🎂🧵

1/4

https://lithub.com/maggie-ofarrell-on-elspeth-barkers-modern-scottish-classic-o-caledonia/

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #gothic #comingofage

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36d

Smoke in the woods
like someone walking in a silent film
beside the tracks…

—John Burnside, “Signal Stop, Near Horsley”
published in SELECTED POEMS (Cape, 2006)

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/389400/selected-poems-by-burnside-john/9780224078030

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #winter #JohnBurnside

Signal Stop, Near Horsley
John Burnside

Smoke in the woods
like someone walking in a silent film
beside the tracks.

A shape I recognise – not smoke, or not just smoke,
and not just snow on hazels
or fox-trails from the platform to the trees,

but winter, neither friend
nor stranger, like the girl I sometimes glimpse

at daybreak near the crossing, in a dress
of sleet and berries, gazing at the train.

ALT

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36d

The St  Andrews Chronicles, one of the most important manuscript histories of Scotland, is going on public display for the first time in its 500-year history. The book will be on display at University of St Andrews Wardlaw Museum from 21 November to 7 December

https://news.st-andrews.ac.uk/archive/500-year-old-history-of-scotland-on-public-display-for-the-first-time/

#Scottish #literature #history #16thcentury #manuscript #BookHistory

A sixteenth-century handwritten book, lying open on a dark grey-blue cushion. Cloth-covered weighted cords hold the book open to display the text, including a section underlined in red and a paragraph starting with a large, red capital M.

ALT

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35d

What are you going to do
With what is left of yourself
Now among the rustling
Of your maybe best years?

—WS Graham, “An Entertainment for WS Graham for Him Having Reached Sixty-Five”

The Modernist romantic poet W.S. Graham (1918–1986) was born #OTD, 19 November

A 🎂 🧵

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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/145184/an-entertainment-for-ws-graham-for-him-having-reached-sixty-five

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #modernism #romanticism #WSGraham

An Entertainment for W.S. Graham for Him Having Reached Sixty-Five
by W. S. Graham

What are you going to do
With what is left of yourself
Now among the rustling
Of your maybe best years?
This is not an auto-elegy
With me pouring my heart
Out into where you
Differently stand or sit
On the Epidaurus steps.
What shall I say to myself
Having put myself down
On to a public page?

Where am I going now?
And where are you going
Tricked into reading
Words of my later life?
Let me pretend you are
Roughly of my age.
Are you a boy or a girl?
And what has happened to you?

Look at the chirping various
Leaves of Mr Graham’s
Spanking summer. Where are
You at? I know my face
Has changed. My hair has blanched
Into a wrong disguise
Sitting on top of my head.

Beside each other perched
On the Epidaurus steps.
Where am I going to go?
Shall I rise to follow
The thin sound of the goats
Tinkling their bells?

ALT

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35d

Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference
17 January, University of Glasgow – £25 (includes tea, coffee, lunch, & a toast)

A day conference exploring the life, work, & legacy of Robert Burns.This year, the conference theme is the Burns Supper: a global phenomenon that celebrates its 225th anniversary in 2026.

@litstudies

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/centre-for-robert-burns-studies-conference-tickets-1851549627779

#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #18thcentury #poetry #song #romanticism #BurnsSupper

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36d

Is ailbhean.co-shaoghal.net fear de dh’iomadh frithealaiche Mastodon neo-eisimeileach as urrainn dhut cleachdadh airson pàirt a ghabhail sa cho-shaoghal. Tha am frithealaiche seo ann do luchd na Gàidhlig.

https://ailbhean.co-shaoghal.net

Mu dhèidhinn: https://ailbhean.co-shaoghal.net/about
Rianachd le: @gunchleoc

#FeaturedServer #Gàidhlig #ScottishGaelic #ScotsGaelic #Gaelic #Alba #Scotland #Scottish #Mastodon #Fediverse #FreeFediverse

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32d

I’m truly sorry Man’s dominion
Has broken Nature’s social union,
An’ justifies that ill opinion,‍‍
‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,‍‍
‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍ ‍‍‍‍‍‍ ‍An’ fellow-mortal!

—Robert Burns, “To a Mouse, On turning her up in her Nest, with the Plough, November 1785”

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #RobertBurns #Scots #Scotlsanguage #environmentalism #naturewriting #18thCentury #Romanticism #November #winter