Edinburgh - by
If they should ask what makes the stuff of us
/ We should call up such idle things…
If they should ask what makes the stuff of us
/ We should call up such idle things…
Above the Crags that fade and gloom
/ Starts the bare knee of Arthur’s Seat;
/ Ridged high against the evening bloom,…
Stout Laird o’ Blackford Hill, let me
/ But gain your honour’s lug a wee,
/ I fain wad let your lairdship see
/ …
A Welcome
/
/ Sons and daughters of Aesculapius
/ from Doctor & Prof to Mr & Ms,
/ we the citizenry of Auld Reekie
/ celebrate your Quincentenary;
/ James…
The Misses Nelly to the Burgess surgeon!
/ This very night, a performance
/ Of dissection – flexing leg, belly, supple loin and eye…
Eyeing an African carved leaning tower
/ Of people holding one another up
/ For dear life, childishly I bless that stranger
/
/ Who in a…
Embro my ain, ye are aye meant
/ tae be a city o middle-class douceness
/ …
“Aa ony o us ever wantit was a hoose in Jeffrey Street”
/ – Old lady, reminiscing on her life in the…
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…
Now mirk December’s dowie face
/ Glowrs owr the rigs wi sour grimace,
/ While, thro’ his minimum of space,
/ …
… Now morn, with bonny purpie-smiles,
/ Kisses the air-cock o’ St Giles;
/ Rakin their een, the servant lasses
/ Early begin their lies and…
From the corner of Scotland I know so well
/ I see Edinburgh sprawling like seven cats
/ on its seven hills beside…