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
  • >
  • babies
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

babies

Waking with Russell - by Don Paterson

{ Poem }

Whatever the difference is, it all began
the day we woke up face-to-face like lovers
and his four-day-old smile dawned on him again…

Naming - by Gillian K. Ferguson

{ Poem }

___________ –
/
/ your name is the print
/ love has made in the world,
/
/ your body the growing home
/ your spirit has made upon…

Learning to Stand - by Gillian K. Ferguson

{ Poem }

On the earth a stretched second
/ you stood, balanced. Gravity
/
/ glued dolly shoes. You wore
/ the sky on your head, jauntily,
/
/ light blue paper…

Baby Hand - by Gillian K. Ferguson

{ Poem }

Not bones but muscular air
/ inside; why starfish spread
/ five doll small living fingers
/ with cushion button dimples
/ for knuckles. All of…

Gap Year - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

Gap Year
/ (for Mateo)
/
/ I
/ I remember your Moses basket before you were born.
/ I’d stare at the fleecy white sheet for days, weeks,
/ willing…

Trio - by Edwin Morgan

{ Poem }

Orphean sprig! Melting baby! Warm chihuahua!
The vale of tears is powerless before you.
Whether Christ is born, or is not born, you
put paid to fate, it abdicates
under the Christmas lights.

To Andrew, Before One - by Alasdair Gray

{ Poem }

He holds a spoon, certain of what he holds:
/ nothing more solid-certain than his spoon:
/ at clenching fist and hard thing clenched,…

A Mither’s Lilt - by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray

{ Poem }

My bonnie bairn
/ My bonnie bairn
/ My bonnie bairn, there’s blessin’s in yer e’e.
/ An’ O ye hae a dainty mou’, dainty mou’,…

Observances - by James Pittendrigh Macgillivray

{ Poem }

A boy row in a umman’s coatie –
/ In a man’s sark row a lassie:
/ Nor wash…

Dear Hannah… - by Seán Rafferty

{ Poem }

Dear Hannah, Time no less than space
/ would keep us, firmly, in our place.
/ I being old and sluggish, here
/ and you, so…

Love - by Kate Clanchy

{ Poem }

I hadn’t met his kind before.
/ His misericord face – really,
/ like a joke on his father – blurred
/ as if from years…

Flight - by James McGonigal

{ Poem }

To wake into this night silence
/ when the wind has dropped
/ and everything is aftermath and dark
/
/ – this is the dream they…

1 2 Next
  • 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