My father said he dreamed of these Edinburgh Streets
in his sleep. Another walking ghost, finding this city as it was
and can never be again. Memory is a shifting thing
like this city, it cannot be relied upon. Like Hutton discovered in the rock
I’m ten years away from the corner you laugh onwith your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.The three of you bend from the waist, holdingeach other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn. I’m not here yet. The thought of me doesn’t occurin the ballroom with the […]
Tha am bùrach a’ coiseachd tarsainn Drochaid Sheòrais, a’ brunndail ‘Àidh Bhith’ ‘Àidh Bhith’ mar gum b’e geasa th’ann ’s tron chlach tha bùrach nan linnteana’ sruthadh sìos a Geata nam Bà mar chofaidh tro uachdar reòite.Dhèanadh na Ròmanaich bùrach agus theireadh iad fois ris,ach uaireannan chan eil dad a dhìth ort ach bùrach:am faireachdainn […]
a space for poetry and people to tryst
on three fountain stones of language
O wad this braw hie-heapit toun Sail aff like an enchanted ship, Drift owre the warld’s seas up and doun, And kiss wi’ Venice lip to lip, Or anchor into Naples’ Bay A misty island far astray Or set her rock to Athens’ wa’, Pillar to pillar, stane to stane, The cruikit spell o’ her […]
Robert Louis Stevenson,
/ the author in his jimjams,
/ wrote about the New Town,
/ its draughty parallelograms…
Sassoon, the elder, Sunday golfer; / Owen, bookish, gangly, pale – mingling / with the queue for the refectory.
On leaving
you playfully punched
my left
shoulder…
In twos and threes, they have not far to roam, / Crowds that thread eastward, gay of eyes…
Tune: Ti, ti, ti, ta (wi’ apologies tae Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony)
/
/ I
/
/ Duddingston Loch
/ Skate ower…
On day 1, explore Edinburgh Castle sitting proud: / find the modest crown of a far from quiet country, /…
Stone above storms, you rear upon the ridge:
/ we live on your back, its crag-and-tail,
/
/ spires and tenements stacked on your spine,
/ the…
