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
    • 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
  • >
  • Walter Perrie
  • >
  • Lament
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Lament

Walter Perrie

So you are going away
damn you
and me to stay
to face
November and December
all alone
north wind blowing
rough sea flowing through
green days of grace
the sheltered place
bless you
we spent in lovely sin.


Walter Perrie

from Caravanserai (Edinburgh: Chanticleer, 2005)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Best Scottish Poems 2005

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2005. 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 editor in 2005 was Richard Price.

Editor's comment: 
The simplicity of a diary entry or an inscription on a wall, almost pre-aged with its slightly old-fashioned register, but with a heart-felt, lean and prosodic balance; it begins as if it might be a curse but ends in fond memory.

Author's note: 
'Lament' is one of a pair of poems – the other is 'Riddle' – which were written when I was reading a lot of early Irish literature. Human emotions are rarely unmixed or unambiguous and I have tried to let my poems reflect something of that complexity of feeling. The great attraction for me of literature from tribal societies – Homeric Greece, pre-conquest Ireland – is its directness and urgency of expression and – very often – its linguistic virtuosity.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2005

The second issue of Best Scottish Poems, edited by Richard Price.
Find out more

Walter Perrieb.1949

Publisher, editor and poet Walter Perrie was born in Lanarkshire and now lives and works in Perthshire.
More about Walter Perrie

Podcasts

Our audio programme of poets, poems and news for you to listen to.
Listen 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