MacDiarmid on Whalsay - by
1. A Glass of Cold Water, Mid-Afternoon
/
/ Some like it hot, after dinner, but poets know their
/ preference: A house at home in…
Place: Scotland
St Ninian’s Isle - by
Hit hed ta be a saint at strayed dis far nort
/ at cared aboot da sowls o Pictish fisherfock.
/ Foo da bairns…
Brekken Beach, Nort Yell - by
A mile aff we catch a glisk
/ o Brekken beach: webbed
/ atween headlands, a glansin arc
/ o ancient shalls
/ sun sillered.
/
/ Waves aff Arctic floes
/ bank…
Sang oda Post War Exiles - by
Harry listen Harry please
/ We canna bide nae langer.
/ Da aert is tired man, sae is du,
/ We’ll sell da sheep, we’ll sell…
The Scottish Prince - by
Every summer, I visit the Scottish Prince
/ at his castle high on a hill outside Crieff.
/ We dine on haggis and tatties…
Like - by
The fog that is like but more rare
/ The wind that is like but not…
Lochinver - by
Lochinver. The end of the track.
/ Black swallows black
/ and the storm howls like a dog.
/ At the quay, in orange fog,
/ a ship…
A Westray Prayer - by
i.m. Mike and Barbara Heasman
/
/ Let us now give thanks
/ for these salt-blown
/
/ wind-burned pastures
/ where outgrass and timothy
/ shrink from the harrow of the…
Homeland - by
fur Dennis Canavan MSP wha defendit
/ the inalienable richt o Scottish folk
/ tae mak free progess ower the land
/
/ She birls…
Munlochy - by
The valley shines
/ gold from sea to hill, tree to sky
/ in afternoon sun, good sun, though the evening chill
/ promises frost, morning…
Orkney / This Life - by
For Catherine and Jamie
/
/ It is big sky and its changes,
/ the sea all round and the waters within.
/ It is the way…
A Recipe for Whisky - by
Wring the Scottish rain clouds dry;
/ Take sleet, the driving snow, the hail;
/ Winter twilight; the summer’s sun slowed down
/ to pearl-sheen dusk…