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  • Lothian Burn
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Lothian Burn

Stewart Conn

Up here, scarcely
birdsong even: only

the labials and gutturals
of this burn as it gurgles

downhill, locality of accent
in vowel and consonant,

each circumlocution
through heather and sandstone

traced by inflection
and sharp interjection

until, in a mossy outcrop,
it comes to a glottal stop.


Stewart Conn

from The River’s Voice, edited by Angela King & Susan Clifford (Common Ground, 2000)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Scotland Scottish Borders
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Stewart Connb.1936

Stewart Conn was the inaugural Edinburgh City Makar from 2002 to 2005. He is a poet and playwright, with more than a dozen collections of poetry; The Touch of Time: new & selected poems was published in 2014.
More about Stewart Conn

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