Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Roddy Lumsden
  • >
  • The Haunt
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Haunt

Roddy Lumsden

Betwixt of January,
the year’s scantest trawl. The sharking ghost of Anne Boleyn

would raise a shrug. But my ghost would void your bowel.

My ghost would hug you hard – then hug you far too hard.


Roddy Lumsden

from The Bells of Hope (Penned in the Margins, 2012)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Best Scottish Poems 2012 ghosts haunting short poems

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2012. 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 2012 were Zoë Strachan and Louise Welsh.

Editors’ comment:

Just one of a diary of 51 ‘kernel’ poems blending truth and metaphor, this is a gothic gem with an irresistibly sharp edge. Unlike the ‘sharking ghost’ of Anne Boleyn, this ‘haunt’ knows how to scare –we hope the fright is the pleasurable, horror movie kind, but we can’t be completely sure.

Author’s note:

‘The Haunt’ is part of a sequence of 51 poems called The Bells of Hope. It came out as a beautiful limited edition book last year from Penned in the Margins, and will be reprinted in my next Bloodaxe collection in mid 2014. For a long time, I said it was not a sequence, but a series of poems, each in a self-invented form (the kernel poem). But as the series progressed, the poems began to connect and it seemed they were all related to my situation of living alone, after so many years of cohabitation. The poems felt like a metaphorical diary. The kernel poem consists of a swirl of truth and metaphor in one dimeter line and three equal, much longer lines. Some of the poems stand alone well; others (including ‘The Haunt’, I think) work better within the context of the sequence. This little poem was the very first kernel poem I wrote. I wrote another straight after. Both were inspired by an article in Fortean Times about the supposed ghosts of famous people who had been executed. There’s a definite echo here of a theme in my long poem ‘Terrific Melancholy’, of the self as a ghost we might both fear and try to embrace.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2012

edited by Zoë Strachan & Louise Welsh
Find out more

Roddy Lumsden1966 - 2020

Roddy Lumsden was born in St Andrews. He is the author of nine collections of poetry and is a freelance writer, specialising in quizzes and puzzles.
More about Roddy Lumsden

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 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss