Eggplant.place

36d

Each night she fills, from the fabled
well of disappointment, a kettle
for her hottie…

—Kathleen Jamie, “Mrs McKellar, Her Martyrdom”
from The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth-Century Scottish Poetry (Edinburgh University Press, 2005)

https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-the-edinburgh-book-of-twentieth-century-scottish-poetry.html

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #marriage #humour

Mrs McKellar, Her Martyrdom
Kathleen Jamie

Each night she fills, from the fabled
well of disappointment, a kettle
for her hottie. Lying
in his apportioned bed:
Mr McKellar – annulled
beside his trouser press.

Who mentions, who defers to whom
on matters concerning
redecorating the living room,
milk delivery, the damp
stain spreading on the ceiling

when a word is a kind of touch?
Speaking of which, and they don't,
the garden needs attention
and the bedroom window frames,
exquisitely, the darkening hills,
a sky teased with mauve.

But he won't notice, or smell her burning
fix it! fix it!
won't look up the number
of Roofer and Son about that
slightly bewildering stain,

and she'll keep schtum.
Medieval in a dressing gown,
she'd rather display
toward an indifferent world
the means of her agony:
a broken toilet seat,

or die, lips sealed, regarding
the rotting window sills, that
wobbling shelf, which she could
as it happens, repair herself,
but won't, on principle.

ALT

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24d

Henry Raeburn’s portrait of Robert Burns had been missing for more than 200 years until it was discovered during a house clearance & sold at auction in 2025. It is on display in the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway until 1 November – free, no booking required

https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/burns-portrait-returns-to-poets-birthplace

#Scottish #literature #RobertBurns #romanticism #portrait #painting #visualart #18thcentury #19thcentury #Raeburn #HenryRaeburn

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23d

“When we try to reduce people, we often try and reduce them to this or that, but we’re all multiple… I think the reason that TRUMPET is still a popular book all these years later is because it deals with some of these questions of multiple identity.”

—Jackie Kay discusses her 1998 novel TRUMPET with Lavender Menace volunteer Maeve Sheridan.

https://lavendermenace.org.uk/jackie-kay-on-trumpet

#Scottish #literature #JackieKay #novel #LGBTQ #LGBTQfiction #Queer #QueerLiterature #Trans

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23d

…fabulous film-noir stills of Central Station
of freezing fog silvering the chilled, stilled parks
of the glamorous past
where drops on a rainmate are sequins
in the lamplight, in the black-and-white…

—Liz Lochhead, “Some Old Photographs”

Today, 19 August, is World Photography Day

https://www.glasgowtimes.co.uk/resources/images/8209217/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #photography #WorldPhotographyDay

Some Old Photographs
Liz Lochhead

Weather evocative as scent

the romance of dark stormclouds
in big skies over the low wide river
of long shadows and longer shafts of light

of smoke
fabulous film-noir stills of Central Station
of freezing fog silvering the chilled, stilled parks
of the glamorous past
where drops on a rainmate are sequins
in the lamplight, in the black-and-white

your young, still-lovely mother laughs, the
hem of her sundress whipped up
by a wind on a beach
somewhere doon the watter
before you were even born

all the dads in hats
are making for Central at five past five
in the snow, in the rain, in the sudden what-a-scorcher,
in the smog, their
belted dark overcoats white-spattered by the starlings

starlings swarming
in that perfect and permanent cloud
above what was
never really this photograph
but always all the passing now
and noise and stink and smoky breath of George Square
wee boays, a duchess, bunting, there’s a
big launch on the Clyde
and that boat is yet to sail

ALT

Central Station, Glasgow 1960. © Newsquest (H&T) Glasgow Herald and Times. A black-and-white photo of the stairs leading to the concourse in Glasgow’s Central Station, 1960. Figures of men and women are silhouetted against the horizontal bars of the staircase. At the top, a crowd of people wait for trains. Advert hoardings for Capstan Cigarettes and Johnnie Walker whisky hang in the steamy, smoky air above the crowd.

ALT

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23d

Edwin Morgan died #OnThisDay, 19 August, 2010. “Riddle”, the final poem of Morgan’s final collection, 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘕𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘮𝘢𝘳𝘦𝘴 (Mariscat, 2010), is a translation of one of the 10th-century Anglo-Saxon Exeter Book riddles, itself a translation of a Latin original by the poet Aldhelm (c639–709 CE)

#Scottish #literature #EdwinMorgan #poem #poetry #translation #riddle #AngloSaxon #medieval

Riddle
by Edwin Morgan

Up beyond the universe and back
Down to the tiniest chigger in the finger –
I outstrip the moon in brightness,
I outrun midsummer suns.
I embrace the seas and other waters,
I am fresh and green as the fields I form.
I walk under hell, I flow over the heavens.
I am the land, I am the ocean.
I claim this honour, I claim its worth.
I am what I claim. What is my name?

ALT

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22d

Starting 31 Aug, BBC Radio 4: A WORKING MOTHER, by Agnes Owens (1926–2014)

Ten years after WW2, our unreliable narrator Betty – arch, witty, clever – is married with children & feels trapped. While her husband, Adam, drinks and complains, Betty flirts with their best friend Brendan, tries to avoid the roving hands of her new employer, & plots her escape…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0030x97

#Scottish #literature #20thcentury #womenwriters #AgnesOwens #workingclass #workingclasswriters #audiobooks

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20d

Tom Leonard
“Jist ti Let Yi No”
(from the American of Carlos Williams)

ahv drank
thi speshlz
that wurrin
thi frij

n thit
yiwurr probbli
hodn back
furthi pahrti

awright
they wur great
thaht stroang
thaht cawld

Audio on Penn Sound:

https://media.sas.upenn.edu/pennsound/authors/Leonard/Tom-Leonard_Jist-ti-Let-Yi-No.mp3

#Scottish #literature #language #Glasgow #Glaswegian #poem #poetry #TomLeonard #WilliamCarlosWilliams

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20d

efturryd geenuz iz speel
iboot whut wuz right
nwhut wuz rang
boot this nthat
nthi nix thing
a sayzti the bloke
nwhut izzit yi caw
yir joab jimmy…

—Tom Leonard, “liason coordinator”
from GHOSTIE MEN (Galloping Dog Press, 1980)

Tom Leonard (1944–2018) was born #OTD, 22 August

https://www.tomleonard.co.uk/online-poetry-and-prose/liasoncoordinator.html

#Scottish #literature #language #Glasgow #Glaswegian #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

efturryd geenuz iz speel
iboot whut wuz right
nwhut wuz rang
boot this nthat
nthi nix thing

a sayzti the bloke
nwhut izzit yi caw
yir joab jimmy

am a liason co-ordinator
hi sayz oh good ah sayz
a liason co-ordinator

jist whut this erria needs
whut way aw thi unimploymint
inaw thi bevvyin
nthi boayz runnin amock
nthi hoossyz fawnty bits
nthi wummin n tranquilisers
it last thiv sent uz
a liason co-ordinator

sumdy wia digree
in fuck knows whut
get peyd fur no known
whut thi fuck ti day way it

ALT

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20d

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”

#Scottish #literature #language #Glasgow #Glaswegian #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

The Six O’Clock News
Tom Leonard

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.
thirza right
way ti spell
ana right way
to tok it. this
is me tokn yir
right way a
spellin. this
is ma trooth.
yooz doant no
thi trooth
yirsellz cawz
yi canny talk
right. this is
the six a clock
nyooz. belt up.

ALT

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20d

And their judges spoke with one dialect,
but the condemned spoke with many voices.

And the prisons were full of many voices,
but never the dialect of the judges.

And the judges said:
“No-one is above the Law.”

—Tom Leonard, “And the judges said”
from Situations Theoretical & Contemporary (1986)

#Scottish #literature #language #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

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20d

I like seeing nurse frieda knitting
as I like watching my wife knitting
as I liked watching my mother knitting
though she was more of a dabber
(plain and purl, plain and purl)…

—Tom Leonard, “in hospital”
published in access to the silence: poems and posters 1984–2000 (etruscan, 2004)

https://www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk/poem/hospital/

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

in hospital
Tom Leonard

I like seeing nurse frieda knitting
as I like watching my wife knitting
as I liked watching my mother knitting
though she was more of a dabber
(plain and purl, plain and purl)

it’s not
“women being in their place”
or knitting the chains that keep them down

just

the future, knitting the future
the present peaceful, quiet
as if

the same woman knitting
for a thousand years

ALT

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19d

right inuff
ma language is disgraceful
ma maw tellt mi
ma teacher tellt mi
thi doactir tellt mi
thi priest tellt mi…

—Tom Leonard, “right inuff”
published in GHOSTIE MEN (Galloping Dog Press, 1980)

#Scottish #literature #language #Glasgow #Glaswegian #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

“right enuff”
by Tom Leonard

right inuff
ma language is disgraceful
ma maw tellt mi
ma teacher tellt mi
thi doactir tellt mi
thi priest tellt mi

ma boss tellt mi
ma landlady in carrington street tellt mi
thi lassie ah tried tay get aff way in 1969 tellt mi
sum wee smout thit thoat ah hudny read chomsky tellt mi
a calvinist communist thit thoat ah wuz revisionist tellt mi
po-faced literati grimly kerryin thi burden a thi past tellt mi
po-faced literati grimly kerryin thi burden a thi future tellt mi
ma wife tellt mi jist-tay-get-inty-this-poem tellt mi
ma wainz came hame fray school an tellt mi
jist aboot ivry book ah oapnd tellt mi
even thi introduction tay thi Scottish National Dictionary tellt mi

ach well
all livin language is sacred
fuck the lohta thim.

ALT

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19d

“Unsympathetic as Robert is as a character, some of the experiences he goes through at Gil-Martin’s hands (or possibly, because of his own guilt personified as Gil-Martin) are absolutely terrifying… The book as a whole is very convincing as a portrait of mental collapse”

Tabitha Potts chooses James Hogg’s 1824 classic PRIVATE MEMOIRS & CONFESSIONS OF A JUSTIFIED SINNER as one of her top 5 works of psychological horror

https://fivebooks.com/best-books/the-best-psychological-horror-books-tabitha-potts/

#Scottish #literature #19thcentury #gothic #horror

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20d

yi mist yirsell so yi did
we aw skiptwirr ferz njumptaffit thi lights
YIZIR AW PINE THEY FERZ THIMORRA
o it wizza scream
thaht big shite wiz dayniz nut…

—Tom Leonard, “A Scream”
from Six Glasgow Poems (1967)

https://www.tomleonard.co.uk/online-poetry-and-prose.html

#Scottish #literature #language #Glasgow #Glaswegian #poem #poetry #TomLeonard

A Scream
Tom Leonard

yi mist yirsell so yi did
we aw skiptwirr ferz njumptaffit thi lights
YIZIR AW PINE THEY FERZ THIMORRA
o it wizza scream
thaht big shite wiz dayniz nut

tellnyi jean
we wirraw shoutn backit im
rrose shoutit shi widny puhllit furra penshin
o yi shooda seeniz face
hi didny no wherrty look

thing iz tay
thirz nay skool thimorra
thi daft kunt wullny even getiz bluddy ferz

ALT

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17d

From the calm and stillness of a Scottish morning,
as life becomes uncertain and strange
we send you a waking breath…

—“Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine”, curated by Kathleen Jamie in 2022

Today, 24 August, is the Independence Day of Ukraine
🇺🇦🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=StrAumuwZj8

#Scottish #literature #poem #poetry #Ukraine #IndependenceDayofUkraine

watch?v=StrAumuwZj8

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17d

Dorothy Dunnett (1923–2001) was born #OTD, 25 August, in Dunfermline. She is best known as a writer of historical fiction – in particular the six-part LYMOND CHRONICLES that begin with those fateful words:

“Lymond is back.”

A 🎂 🧵

@bookstodon

1/7

https://booksfromscotland.com/2019/06/rediscovering-dorothy-dunnett/

#Scottish #literature #DorothyDunnett #LymondChronicles #HistoricalFiction #novel

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16d

Oidhche nam Bàrd – Poetry in Art & Sound
10 September, Tramway, Glasgow – £20/£12

A landmark celebration of over 1000 years of Gaelic poetry, weaving together Gaelic voices of the past & the words of our greatest living poets, presented through live performance, music, & visual projection. Welcoming Gaelic speakers & non-Gaelic speakers alike, all poems read will be accompanied by on-screen English translations.

https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/event/1/oidhche-nam-brd-poetry-in-art-and-sound

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poetry #Glasgow

oidhche-nam-brd-poetry-in-art-and-sound

Edited 16d ago

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17d

Everybody to Kenmure Street
14 Oct, National Library of Scotland at Kelvinhall, Glasgow – free

A special screening of “Everybody to Kenmure Street” – winner of the Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Civil Resistance

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/everybody-to-kenmure-street-tickets-1998490522952

#Scottish #documentary #Glasgow #KenmureStreet #CivilResistance #film #cinema

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16d

Lines etched on a window at Wingate’s Inn, Stirling, 26 August 1787

Here Stewarts once in triumph reign’d,
And laws for Scotland’s weal ordain’ d;
But now unroof’d their Palace stands,
Their Sceptre’s fall’n to other hands…

#OTD, 26 August, 1787, Robert Burns wrote this poem with a diamond-tipped pen on a window in Stirling

https://burnsmuseum.wordpress.com/2018/08/24/graffiti-artist/

#Scottish #literature #18thcentury #Jacobites #Hanoverian #republicanism #monarchy #RobertBurns #graffiti

Lines etched on a window at Wingate’s Inn, Stirling, 26 August 1787
Robert Burns

Here Stewarts once in triumph reign’d,
And laws for Scotland’s weal ordain’d;
But now unroof’d their Palace stands,
Their Sceptre’s fall’n to other hands;
Fall’n indeed, and to the Earth
Whence grovelling reptiles take their birth.
The injur’d STEWART-line are gone,
A Race outlandish fills their throne:
An idiot race, to honour lost—
Who know them best despise them most.

ALT

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16d

“The life of John Buchan reads like one of his adventure stories… he roamed both continents & careers alike, leaping from one cliffhanger to the next”

John Buchan (1875–1940) – from son of the manse to Governor-General of Canada – was born #OTD, 26 August.

A 🎂 🧵

1/9

https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2025/12/the-reign-of-saturn/

#Scottish #literature #JohnBuchan #20thcentury

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46d

Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O?
Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Came ye by Killiecrankie, O?

—“Killicrankie”, from James Hogg’s JACOBITE RELICS OF SCOTLAND (1819).

The Battle of Killiecrankie ⚔️ was fought #OTD, 27 July, 1689. A Jacobite force led by Ewan Cameron of Lochiel & Viscount Dundee defeated a Scottish government army commanded by Hugh Mackay

#Scottish #literature #EarlyModern #17thcentury #battle #Jacobite #song #folksong

Page images from James Hogg’s JACOBITE RELICS OF SCOTLAND (1819). Musical notation is supplied for the chorus: the full text of the song is also given:

Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Whare hae ye been sae brankie, O?
Whare hae ye been sae braw, lad?
Came ye by Killiecrankie, O?

CHORUS:
An ye had been whare I hae been
Ye wadna been sae cantie, O;
An’ ye had seen what I hae seen,
I’ the braes o’ Killiecrankie, O

I faught at land, I faught at sea,
At hame I faught my auntie, O;
But I met the Devil and Dundee
On the braes o’ Killiecrankie, O
An ye had been, &c.

The bauld Pitcur fell in a furr,
And Clavers gat a clankie, O,
Or I had fed an Athol gled
On the braes o’ Killiecrankie, O.
An ye had been, &c.

Oh fie, Mackay, what gart ye lie
I’ the brush ayont the brankie, O?
Ye’d better kiss’d King Willie’s loof,
Than come to Killiecrankie, O.
It’s nae shame, it’s nae shame
It’s nae shame to shank ye, O;
There’s sour slaes on Athol braes,
And deils at Killiecrankie, O.

ALT

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15d

NAMING THE SNAKES: New Writing Scotland 44
Glasgow launch
8 September, Waterstones Sauchiehall St, Glasgow – £5 / £12 with book

Celebrate the latest issue with a mix of readings of poetry, short fiction & non-fiction in English, Gaelic & Scots – all welcome!

https://www.waterstones.com/events/new-writing-scotland-44-launch/glasgow-sauchiehall-street

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #Scots #Scotslanguage #poetry #shortfiction #shortstories #booklaunch #writingcommunity #Glasgow

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14d

In Conversation: Callum McSorley

“I read THE CUTTING ROOM by Louise Welsh and everything clicked into place. Here was Glasgow, as I knew it but also totally different. Welsh had created a Glasgow that had all the glamour and seediness of hardboiled LA. This is what I wanted to write.”

Callum McSorley in conversation with Sindhu Rajasekaran about writing crime fiction & sequels, & his latest novel RAT RACE.

https://www.thesubjectivespace.com/callum-mcsorley

#Scottish #literature #crimefiction #Glasgow #TartanNoir

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14d

nuair a tha mi fhìn nam sheasamh
aig ceann Loch an Dala
’s mi a’ coimhead thar cuain geur
a’ deàrrsadh ’s a’ deàlradh
fo ghrian na sìorraidheachd
chan fhaic mi sgath dhen ghlasadh cheilteach…

—Iain S. Mac a’ Phearsain, “ceann Loch an Dala”
published in Friends & Kangaroos: New Writing Scotland 17

#Scottish #literature #Gaidhlig #Gaelic #poem #poetry #Islay