Tha am bùrach a’ coiseachd tarsainn Drochaid Sheòrais, a’ brunndail ‘Àidh Bhith’ ‘Àidh Bhith’ mar gum b’e geasa th’ann ’s tron chlach tha bùrach nan linnteana’ sruthadh sìos a Geata nam Bà mar chofaidh tro uachdar reòite.Dhèanadh na Ròmanaich bùrach agus theireadh iad fois ris,ach uaireannan chan eil dad a dhìth ort ach bùrach:am faireachdainn […]
It should have been easy to travel from the eastgate to the west, but I have a dark northern mindand drifted towards the early afternoon twilight.The path lost its bearings somewhere betweenthe Glasshouse, the Arboretum and the ChineseHillside, and soon had become a field as vastas a football pitch, eerily floodlit, with onedappled cow munching […]
And the sky opens out above all the glass / inaccessible VIP pathways. / How did we get here like this?
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 […]
Robert Louis Stevenson,
/ the author in his jimjams,
/ wrote about the New Town,
/ its draughty parallelograms…
In twos and threes, they have not far to roam, / Crowds that thread eastward, gay of eyes…
Far from the scent of the crocus
/ And the pavanne of Scottish daffodils
/ A loud crash was heard in Princes Street.
/ Safe from…
Our strength is our difference. / Dinny fear it. Dinny caw canny. …
Tune: Ti, ti, ti, ta (wi’ apologies tae Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony)
/
/ I
/
/ Duddingston Loch
/ Skate ower…
Remembering an Edinburgh neighbour
/
/
/ Descending her garden path
/ she turns, backtracks indoors
/ again, and into the front room
/ to straighten a…
O whence the leaves
scuttering down Easter Road,
sycamore and rowan
desperate as refugees
On day 1, explore Edinburgh Castle sitting proud: / find the modest crown of a far from quiet country, /…
