Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Makar – National Poet
      • Our Waking Breath: A Poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine
      • A Woman’s A Woman
      • The story of the Makar – National Poet of Scotland
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Spiorad an Àite
      Spirit of Place
    • The Trysting Thorns
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Posters
    • Podcasts
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • Designing sensory poetry activities
    • Children’s poems in Scots
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • What’s On
    • Meeting rooms and venue hire
    • Exhibitions
  • Shop
    • Poetry Highlights
    • Entropie Books
    • Stichill Marigold Press
    • Poems for Doctors, Nurses & Teachers
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Company Papers & Policies
    • Our projects
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Gerry McGrath
  • >
  • Among the Blue
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Among the Blue

Gerry McGrath

Somehow I wish I could say
it was indifference not love
that found the co-ordinates
for cormorants among the blue
the blue-white gulls

tell you that we have lived once
and will not come this way again

say to you that as long as art
teaches language of recovery
eternal reminders of morning
will grow on our sweat, spume,
tick softly on our lips, on our lips.


Gerry McGrath

from A to B (Manchester: Carcanet, 2008)

Reproduced by permission of the publisher.

Tags:

21st century poems Best Scottish Poems 2008 Love scottish poems transience

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2008. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editors in 2008 were Rosemary Goring and Alan Taylor.

Editors’ comment:
Has Gerry McGrath been listening to Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks? On that album, in ‘If You See Her Say, Hello’, Dylan has a line that begins: “Say for me…” Similarly, McGrath has a line that starts: “Say to you…” That may seem tenuous, preposterous even, but that’s what happens sometimes when you read a poem. McGrath’s poem, like Dylan’s poem/song, is concerned with love and lovemaking. To which McGrath adds an ornithological twist. The result, which in less accomplished hands could have been risible, is a beautifully observed, deeply felt, multi-layered poem.

Author’s note: 
In his Oxford Lectures Paul Muldoon talks about poetry existing at the end of language. This is something that has exercised me for some time; the extent of a poem, its reach into itself and out. I think that poetry is basically a conversation. If you can write it down you have a poem. That’s it in a nutshell. No mystery, just hard work and some good fortune.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2008

edited by Rosemary Goring & Alan Taylor
Find out more

Gerry McGrathb.1962

Gerry McGrath was born and grew up in Helensburgh, studied modern languages at Strathclyde University and worked as a teacher for several years before quitting in 2000 to recover from ME. He lives in North Ayrshire with his wife...
More about Gerry McGrath

Online Shop

Browse our range of poetry books, cards and gifts in our online shop.
Shop now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2022.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
Scottish Poetry Library