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
    • Poetry Ambassadors 2020
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Podcasts
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Our National Poet
    • 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
    • What’s On
    • Venue hire
  • Shop
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • 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
  • >
  • Andrew McNeil
  • >
  • The Pool
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Pool

Andrew McNeil

The auld ootside swimmin-pool
Absurd next tae muckle sanstane boilins,
Survivors o mony storms an gales.

Its watter,
Sic wondrous dark brouns;
Velveteen glory
O the colours metres beyond the surface;
Bladder wrack, seaweeds aw
In motion yet gless on the tap.

Bodies flat,
We wid be human divin-boards –
The real anes long gone –
Starin intae it beyond oorsels.
Wi orange lines an braw roun lead weights
Huntin began.

Greenies, shore crabs gluttons fer limpets
Soukin the life oot a shell-less bodies,
Legs scuttlin in the air:
Hooked.

Aince, bairn met forebear.
Feart an dumb wi bluid chirnin,
Action fae instinct;
the conger itsel a yong ane
Bent, whipped, thrashed on the waa,
Twa o us swallied by its een;
Hooked oorsels,
Baith fisher and fish released;
Escape, unmarked but bloodied.

Scuil library:
Those clock hands draggin
A hand tae Gunn’s Highland River:
Discovery – a master oot fer the hunt.


Andrew McNeil

from Temples fae Creel (Kettillonia, 1999)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

Fife & Angus Scotland Scots
Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Andrew McNeilb.1963

Andrew McNeil was born in Toledo, Ohio, USA in 1963. He was educated at West Anstruther Primary School and Edinburgh University followed by Jordanhill College in Glasgow. He now teaches primary school in Burntisland, Fife and lives in Dunfermline...
More about Andrew McNeil

Join

Become a Borrower or support our work by becoming a Friend of SPL.
Join us

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 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