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fathers

The Night Watch - by Niall Campbell

{ Poem }

Shhh, what did you want to show
that couldn’t wait until the morning?

Was it the moon – because I see it:
the first good bead on a one-bead string

My Papa’s Waltz

{ Poem }

The whiskey on your breathCould make a small boy dizzy;But I hung on like death:Such waltzing was not easy. We romped until the pansSlid from the kitchen shelf;My mother’s countenanceCould not unfrown itself. The hand that held my wristWas battered on one knuckle;At every step you missedMy right ear scraped a buckle. You beat time […]

Prayer for My Father as a Child - by Miriam Nash

{ Poem }

In the house where he sleeps
let my ears
be the leaves at the window.

My Father, Dreaming - by Magi Gibson

{ Poem }

The train glides through a world of frozen white,
/ low mists swirl and smudge the mirror of the Clyde,
/ Helensburgh stretches…

Personal History: For My Son - by Ruthven Todd

{ Poem }

for my son
/
/ O my heart is the unlucky heir of the ages
/ And my body is unwillingly the secret agent
/ Of my…

Weathering - by Alastair Reid

{ Poem }

In my father’s carved face, the bright eye
He sometimes would look out of, seeing a long way
through all the tree-rings of his history.

A Memory of Death - by Alan Bold

{ Poem }

Nineteen fifty six was a momentous year,
/ The year of Suez…

The Sweet Silver Song - by Eddie Gibbons

{ Poem }

Rita, Keith and I are in the British Legion
/ to choose a menu for the wake.
/
/ We’re at the end of the…

A Tray of Frozen Songbirds - by Pascale Petit

{ Poem }

For our last meal together / my father takes out of the freezer / a tray of frozen songbirds.

Galileo’s Daughter – Suor Maria Celeste - by Frances Robson

{ Poem }

Cold stars pin down the night that breathes
/ below the frothy veil of the Milky Way.
/ My father’s gaze is fixed…

In Memoriam - by E. Alan Mackintosh

{ Poem }

Private D. Sutherland
/ killed in action in the German trench, May 16, 1916,
/ and the others who died
/
/ So you were David’s…

From the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh - by Andrew Greig

{ Poem }

My only talent lay in these.
/ My father rubbed his hands together,
/ stared as though their whorls held codes
/ of thirty years obstetric…

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