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  • Best Scottish Poems 2008
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Best Scottish Poems 2008

Lupercal - by Aonghas MacNeacail

{ Poem }

air latha pòr gaoil
/ biodh an cridhe sileadh
/ smuaintean tlàtha
/ fuaran bhàidhean
/ biodh an cridhe sireadh
/ chuantan àighe
/ air latha pòr gaoil
/ biodh a’ phòg
/ nas maille na…

Young Blade - by David Kinloch

{ Poem }

Moonlight becomes blades, blades moon-
/ light as they lilt and pivot out of shadow
/ into yellow pools: I make a point and…

Three Dedications - by Anne Stevenson

{ Poem }

A pint with a whisky was called a ‘nip & chaser’,
/ As if nips could be chaste by the time they…

Maeshowe Nipple - by Private: Dilys Rose

{ Poem }

See – a green breast in a green field, aureola
/ sandy-rimmed, the nipple leaking a pale trail
/ to hidden chambers where, on…

The Last Vision of Angus McKay - by Tom Pow

{ Poem }

Angus McKay, Queen Victoria’s piper, went insane ‘over study of music’. He was admitted to the Crichton Royal from Bedlam…

Love-making in St Kilda - by Donald S. Murray

{ Poem }

Gravity / was shed along with trousers, skirt and shawl /
as they touched the heights the birds could reach

River - by Sam Meekings

{ Poem }

Past the locked garden gate / it came carrying leaves.
/ We first learnt about death / from its rough drag and…

Among the Blue - by Gerry McGrath

{ Poem }

Somehow I wish I could say
/ it was indifference not love
/ that found the co-ordinates
/ for cormorants among the blue
/ the blue-white gulls
/
/ tell you…

To All Intents and Purposes - by Frances Leviston

{ Poem }

I have struggled all my life to never
/ write about the pepper mill
/
/ its corset shape
/ of common wood
/ and secret machinery goings-on
/ of…

Plasma Nights - by Tom Leonard

{ Poem }

seductive bright light
/ of the evening narrative
/
/ ease of habit
/ the need to relax
/
/ heck
/ we all need a break
/
/ so it goes
/ day into night
/
/ something to…

Something Rhymed - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

You’re a gem, you’re a holy cairn
/ You’re a clattering shaw
/ You’re a Tongland Bridge
/ You’re a Solway Firth
/ You’re a Big Water of…

Metadist Metafir - by Robert Alan Jamieson

{ Poem }

Ati’da plen widdin chappil
/ at da Noarbie koarnir,
/ ati’da pierie Metadist kirk,
/
/ he likks an stikks
/ da mukkil kullirt stamps
/ a ‘Chiesis an’ is…

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