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Assynt and Edinburgh

Norman MacCaig

From the corner of Scotland I know so well
I see Edinburgh sprawling like seven cats
on its seven hills beside the Firth of Forth.

And when I’m in Edinburgh I walk
amongst the mountains and lochs of that corner
that looks across the Minch to the Hebrides.

Two places I belong to as though I was born
in both of them.

They make every day a birthday,
giving me gifts wrapped in the ribbons of memory.
I store them away, greedy as a miser.


Norman MacCaig

from The Poems of Norman MacCaig, edited by Ewen McCaig (Polygon, 2005)

Reproduced by by permission of Polygon, an imprint of Birlinn Ltd.

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Edinburgh Edinburgh Highlands & Islands home landscape National Poetry Day 2010 poems on postcards

About this poem

Assynt and Edinburgh National Poetry Day postcard 2010

This poem was reproduced on a postcard for National Poetry Day 2010. Eight poetry postcards are published each year by the Scottish Poetry Library to celebrate National Poetry Day and are distributed throughout Scotland to schools, libraries and other venues. The theme for 2010 was home. You can find out more about National Poetry Day in our National Poetry Day pages, where you’ll also find resources to go with the poems.

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Norman MacCaig

Norman MacCaig1910 - 1996

A poet who divided his life and the attention of his poetry between Assynt in the West Highlands, and the city of Edinburgh, Norman MacCaig combined ‘precise observation with creative wit’,  and wrote with a passion for clarity.
More about Norman MacCaig

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