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
  • >
  • Best Scottish Poems 2013
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

Best Scottish Poems 2013

Time Breaks the Heart - by JL Williams

{ Poem }

Her watch is posted from the south.
/ Its black box ticks the whole way.
/
/ The accident happens, the funeral.
/ The flowers fade.
/
/ Grain in…

In Breton - by Ian Stephen

{ Poem }

In Breton, they say
/ there’s a word that weaves between
/ green and blue, allowing for
/ haze, precipitation,
/ the burr of distance,
/ the welcome…

1964 - by Robin Robertson

{ Poem }

Under the gritted lid of winter
/ each ice-puddle’s broken plate
/ cracked to a star. The morning
/ assembling itself into black and white, the…

Sphagnum Moss - by Donald S. Murray

{ Poem }

Sphagnum moss remembers. It recalls
/ the touchdown of each lark that tumbles
/ down upon its surface, the slightness of that weight
/ recorded…

Be the first to like this - by Theresa Muñoz

{ Poem }

kicking pine cones down the street
/ climbing the backyard cherry tree
/ lying in new sheets
/ waking in darkness waking to snow
/ how…

from At Maldon - by J.O. Morgan

{ Poem }

Waves beating up against cliffs.
/ Cliffs holding hard against waves.
/
/ …

Miracle - by Jim Mainland

{ Poem }

He went directly and unhurried and scanned the smattering.
/
/ Wingbit snagskin throatlap furthew clawlid eyespit oarfire.
/ Oarfire? No, that’s just dreams talking.

Poem for Roy Batty - by Kona Macphee

{ Poem }

Whenever neon trickles down
/ to meet a city drain,
/ I think of you on some wet roof,
/ a cobbled son of men –…

Consequential Egg - by Rob A. Mackenzie

{ Poem }

You prefer the murk of details to the vision complete,
/ incident to…

The Ant Swap - by Russell Jones

{ Poem }

I bend an ear to your sound, put my knees in the dirt,
/ offer my orifices to you like doorways
/ to…

Rabbie, Rabbie, Burning Bright - by W. N. Herbert

{ Poem }

Fae dregs o Daft Deys debt comes hame
and we gaither in depression’s wame
aa duty-crossed –
but Burns’s birthday is a flame
set tae Defrost.

Cat in the Apple Tree - by Diana Hendry

{ Poem }

When, for the umpteenth time he’s outflitted
/ within paw’s reach of the taunting bird, heart
/ goes out to him – his folly,…

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