To Edinburgh - by
Stone above storms, you rear upon the ridge:
/ we live on your back, its crag-and-tail,
/
/ spires and tenements stacked on your spine,
/ the…
Edinburgh
Embro to the Ploy - by
The auld Assembly-rooms, whaur Scott
foregethert wi his fiers,
nou see a gey kenspeckle lot
ablow the chandeliers.
From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - by
My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though their whorls held codes
/ of thirty years obstetric…
Edinburgh - by
If they should ask what makes the stuff of us
/ We should call up such idle things…
From a Window in Princes Street - by
Above the Crags that fade and gloom
/ Starts the bare knee of Arthur’s Seat;
/ Ridged high against the evening bloom,…
from The Wee Raggit Laddie to the Laird of Blackford Hill - by
Stout Laird o’ Blackford Hill, let me
/ But gain your honour’s lug a wee,
/ I fain wad let your lairdship see
/ …
To The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (1505-2005) - by
A Welcome
/
/ Sons and daughters of Aesculapius
/ from Doctor & Prof to Mr & Ms,
/ we the citizenry of Auld Reekie
/ celebrate your Quincentenary;
/ James…
Ned Black’s Dream - by
The Misses Nelly to the Burgess surgeon!
/ This very night, a performance
/ Of dissection – flexing leg, belly, supple loin and eye…
In Surgeons’ Hall, Edinburgh - by
Eyeing an African carved leaning tower
/ Of people holding one another up
/ For dear life, childishly I bless that stranger
/
/ Who in a…
Betrayal in Morninside - by
Embro my ain, ye are aye meant
/ tae be a city o middle-class douceness
/ …
Cougate Revisited - by
“Aa ony o us ever wantit was a hoose in Jeffrey Street”
/ – Old lady, reminiscing on her life in the…
George Square - by
My seventy-seven-year-old father
/ put his reading glasses on
/ to help my mother do the buttons
/ on the back of her dress.
/ ‘What a pair…