This year’s Gies a Scots Poem Day is something special. 2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — a foundational work for contemporary poetry in Scots, and a poem without which, it’s no exaggeration to say, much of the writing in the language today might never have existed.
To mark the occasion, Scots poet Colin Bramwell invited some of the standard bearers of present-day Scots poetry to compose new work in response to MacDiarmid and his legacy. His poetry is fiery, nuanced, gallus — ‘controversial’, as Heaney said. MacDiarmid himself described his own contribution in characteristically volcanic terms: ‘My job, as I see it, has never been to lay a tit’s egg, but to erupt like a volcano, emitting not only flame, but a lot of rubbish.’
Taking issue with MacDiarmid is almost as much of a grand Scottish tradition as praising him, and our poets were invited to do either — or both.
As a visual stimulus, poets were offered Calum Colvin’s remarkable 3D portrait of MacDiarmid (see above). You can explore Colvin’s work here. As a literary starting point, MacDiarmid’s own poetry — particularly the shorter lyrics of Sangschaw and Penny Wheep — provided a rich seam to draw from.
The poems that follow are the result. We hope they spark something in you too.
Click on a poem to read it or to see and hear a film of the poet reading their new work.
Find out more about Gies a Scots Poem Day at the Hands Up for Trad website.
