Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • Poetry
    • Poets
    • Poems
    • Film
    • 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
    • Poetry Ambassadors
      Tosgairean na Bàrdachd
      • Poetry Commissions: Walter Scott 250
        Coimiseanan Bàrdachd: Walter Scott 250
      • Poetry Ambassadors 2021
    • 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
  • >
  • cities
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

cities

Humanity - by Julian Colton

{ Poem }

You can tire of island lifeSalt        Sea               Sky                       Open space. A crowded streetSprayed name on red brick wallIs a visual treatAnd people                       People                                   People.

A Northern Suburb - by John Davidson

{ Poem }

Nature selects the longest way, And winds about in tortuous grooves;A thousand years the oaks decay; The wrinkled glacier hardly moves. But here the whetted fangs of change Daily devour the old demesne –The busy farm, the quiet grange, The wayside inn, the village green. In gaudy yellow brick and red, With rooting pipes, like creepers rank,The shoddy terraces o’erspread Meadow, […]

Interventions around a city - by Vahni Capildeo

{ Poem }

The grandeur of the buildings which were wiped out
may be reconceivable by the sky’s grandeur

The Prows o’ Reekie - by Lewis Spence

{ Poem }

O wad this braw hie-heapit toun Sail aff like an enchanted ship, Drift owre the warld’s seas up and doun, And kiss wi’ Venice lip to lip, Or anchor into Naples’ Bay A misty island far astray Or set her rock to Athens’ wa’, Pillar to pillar, stane to stane, The cruikit spell o’ her […]

Hotel Room, 12th Floor - by Norman MacCaig

{ Poem }

This morning I watched from here
a helicopter skirting like a damaged insect
the Empire State Building,

I Lost my Shoes on Rachel Street - by Rachel McCrum

{ Poem }

I lost my shoes on Rachel St.
/ Head lolled back to rest
/ against a pillow of the Mont
/ kiss the foot of the…

Buddy, Can You Spare a Rhyme? - by Stuart A. Paterson

{ Poem }

Buddy can you spare a rhyme, the time, / a line for Paisley?…

The Glassblower Dances - by Rachel McCrum

{ Poem }

The words first appeared on a lamp post
/ on a dirty road between a chip shop
/ and some tired Turkish…

Text - by Imtiaz Dharker

{ Poem }

I am sending a message again.
/ Maybe you can’t hear it
/ through all the noise of lights
/ and the dangerous way things…

Home Town Elegy - by G. S. Fraser

{ Poem }

(For Aberdeen in Spring)
/
/ Glitter of mica at the windy corners,
/ Tar in the nostrils, under blue lamps budding
/ Like bubbles of…

The Silver City - by Marion Angus

{ Poem }

Yonder she sits beside the tranquil Dee,
/ Kindly yet cold, respectable and wise,
/ Sharp-tongued though civil, with wide-open eyes,
/ Dreaming of hills, yet…

Edinburgh - by Margot Robert Adamson

{ Poem }

If they should ask what makes the stuff of us
/ We should call up such idle things…

1 2 3 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