Best Scottish Poems 2016
edited by Catherine Lockerbie
Editor’s Introduction
What a glorious, multifarious, impossible task: read all the new Scottish poems published within one calendar year. To the uninitiated this may seem a lovely little pastime – something to while away the occasional winter evening in front of the fire with a cup of cocoa. Those a little more clued up will smile knowingly and even allow themselves a small cackle at such naïve innocence. For such is the mighty and vigorous health of the contemporary Scottish poetry scene, that we are talking about the careful reading of many hundreds of poems, of every conceivable genre in every conceivable type of printed publication – established publishers, periodicals, independent pamphlets – these being an increasingly vigorous, beautifully-designed and highly professional sector of publishing, bringing more poetry to more people than ever. The task became an obsessive, ever-growing and endlessly captivating mission.
And then to be required to choose the twenty “best”! How to choose when even the long-list I drew up ran to around a hundred poems? As all previous editors of this online anthology have done, I can only say that the list I have chosen is personal and extremely hard-fought and won. I had no jury, no fellow judges with whom to argue loudly, other than myself – much to the consternation of the cat, the neighbours, fellow passengers on the bus and more. My eventually chosen twenty poems, from established and emerging poets, do what all excellent poetry should do: speak strongly to the heart, whisper softly to the soul, engage the mind, startle and seduce, stir deep emotion, set the world in a new light. They may be profound; they may be full of rage and grief; they may be light and witty; they may be formally complex or of alluring simplicity. This list I consider to be of outstanding merit – but alternative lists of equal merit would have been possible, given the riches of the Scottish poetic output. There are certain collections I especially regret not having represented here – Ian Stephen’s superb collected works, Maritime, reeking headily of sea salt, tides and boats, Angus Martin’s equally sea-infused A Night of Islands, Stewart Conn’s delicate, luminous Against The Light, Hamish Whyte’s wry, limpid and lovely Things We Never Knew, James McGonigal’s complex and fascinating The Camphill Wren among them. They will be on other lists and win other awards. That is truly heartening evidence of the growing cultural energy of this nation and its long poetic traditions, being constantly writ anew.
2016 was in truth a strange year to be reading through a twelvemonth of poetry. It was, as has been copiously commented on, a year of seismic political shift, much of it unthinkable even a short time earlier. Even our everyday lexicon changed – ‘Brexit’ became a normalised neologism and ‘President Trump’ suddenly gave us two words in highly unexpected close proximity. There was an ominous rise in the populist right across continents, a turn in the tide of human affairs and received norms. Little of this was reflected in the poetry I was reading and that is for straightforward chronological reasons – most had been written long before these unforeseen and unsettling surges. W. B. Yeats’s ‘The Second Coming’, suddenly seeming the most relevant and contemporary poem for our own time, had little equivalent in what was being published in Scotland in 2016. Scottish poets will no doubt find their own ways to reflect on these changes, in ways they see fit – or choose to muse on other matters entirely – in the months and years to come.
It is not of course the role or duty of poetry to comment on politics – though a reaction to perceived inhumanity or injustice is at the heart of some of the greatest poetry. Some of the poems in this list are indeed political in the broadest sense, but others are profoundly personal or acutely observing shining, overlooked shards of our intricate world. Some craftily, brilliantly raise a much-needed smile – selected not as escapism, but as a human and humane antidote to a bewildering year. Poetry as solace is a long and noble tradition, not to be lightly dismissed.
So I commend these poems to you and urge you to seek out the work of any poets who particularly speak to you. The Scottish Poetry Library not only commissions and publishes but supports, enables and extends this online anthology. My task may have been vast but the staff tirelessly pursue permissions, podcasts and more to enrich your reading. My great gratitude goes to all of them, notably former Director Robyn Marsack who offered me this most complex and delightful of gifts just before she departed for new adventures. Special thanks to the superb Librarian, Julie Johnstone, who is now pursuing her own creative path, to Lizzie MacGregor and also to Lilias Fraser for their encyclopaedic knowledge, total dedication and quiet, always warm welcome into their beautiful space as I read, and read, and read. If you can physically visit the Scottish Poetry Library, please do so. If not, may these poems welcome you in just as warmly and may you find your own echo or enticing new discovery in their entrancing words.
Catherine Lockerbie
Catherine Lockerbie is one of the country’s leading advocates for the pleasures of reading. Between 1990 and 2000, she worked at The Scotsman, holding a number of senior posts, including Literary Editor, Arts Editor and Chief Leader Writer. In 2000, she was appointed the Director of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, and over the nine years she was in charge, she transformed the EIBF into the world’s biggest book festival. She has chaired award committees and has judged many of Scotland and the UK’s leading literary prizes, and she is a founder of Edinburgh UNESCO City of Literature.
Read the poems
- Outwith
by Katie Ailes - Anthem
by James Aitchison - Catalogue of my grandmother’s sayings
by Claire Askew - Aig Cladh Hallain
by Aonghas Phàdraig Caimbeul Angus Peter Campbell - Don’t Hesitate to Ask
by Michel Faber - The Narcissist & the Light Stasher
by Jenni Fagan - Physics for the unwary student
by Pippa Goldschmidt - Enquiry Desk
by Andy Jackson - This Is It
by William Letford - For Refuge
by Pippa Little - In the Mid-Midwinter
by Liz Lochhead - The Conversion of Sheep
by Hugh McMillan - ‘We used to think the universe was made…’
by J.O. Morgan - What Not to Write on the Back Jacket of Your Debut Collection
by Helena Nelson - Breenge
by Stuart A. Paterson - Full Stretch
by Tom Pow - Reprieve
by Alison Prince - A Poem Before Breakfast
by Em Strang - What Is It Like To Be A Herring Gull?
by Samuel Tongue - People Made Glasgow
by Kate Tough