Lupercal - by
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…
Best Scottish Poems 2008
Young Blade - by
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
A pint with a whisky was called a ‘nip & chaser’,
/ As if nips could be chaste by the time they…
Maeshowe Nipple - by
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
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
When a man makes love to a St Kildan woman,
/ her moans and sighs are like the cries of birds –…
River - by
Past the locked garden gate / it came carrying leaves.
/ We first learnt about death / from its rough drag and…
Among the Blue - by
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
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
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
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
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…