The Plinky-Boat - by
Something near to true
night-darkness. The children
are playing the Plinky-Boat –
a xylophone made
from a reclaimed yoal
Best Scottish Poems 2017
Ashey Lane - by
Always
Solitary
Home
Excellent
Yet
Lonely
And I wish it
Never
Empty.
excerpt from Farm by the Shore - by
small oats rye bere barley
ripe harvest in late summer
a shallow ploughing
grazing and fallow in rotation
excerpt from In Darkest Capital - by
A Critique of Dialectical Reason…
Approaching Sixty - by
In the Central Café
/ in Innsbruck,
/ a girl in a dark-blue dress
/ unlooses her hair from its clasp
/ so it falls to her waist,…
I Lost my Shoes on Rachel Street - by
I lost my shoes on Rachel St.
/ Head lolled back to rest
/ against a pillow of the Mont
/ kiss the foot of the…
Prayer for My Father as a Child - by
In the house where he sleeps
let my ears
be the leaves at the window.
Remembering Friends Who Feared Old Age and Dementia More than Death - by
No one
Looks forward to being old and alone,
The carer with a spoon,
Visitor gone
Hello, I am Scotland - by
Who wakes every morning
/ in a brilliant mood as auburn bursts
/ cast filigree nets over foreheads
/ and swingparks and paint themselves
/ on pavements.
Margaret’s Moon - by
After she died, I swear the sky
/ Had the most beautiful of all sunsets,
/ A blush of pink, then red, a glass…
Our Place - by
Things seen and done add to memory,
are shuffled like cards in a pack,
come to the top in ways we can’t determine.
Remember this then: that here we stand,
together, once and fifty times, and this remains.
Pass the Lukewarm Forest - by
sheer
/ anti-establishment
/ trees…