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  • gifts
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gifts

Just like Eve - by Magi Gibson

{ Poem }

I could have brought you
/ whisky to warm you on winter nights,
/ poems full of words to fill your silences
/
/ I could…

A Visit from St. Nicholas - by Clement Clarke Moore

{ Poem }

Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
/ Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
/ The stockings were…

Valentine - by Carol Ann Duffy

{ Poem }

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Keeping Orchids - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

The orchids my mother gave me when we first met
/ are still alive, twelve days later. Although
/
/ some of the buds remain…

Lucozade - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

My mum is on a high bed next to sad chrysanthemums.
/ ‘Don’t bring flowers, they only wilt and die.’
/ I am scared…

My Grandmother’s Houses - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

1
/ She is on the second floor of a tenement.
/ From her front room window you see the cemetery.
/
/ Her bedroom is my…

Trio - by Edwin Morgan

{ Poem }

Orphean sprig! Melting baby! Warm chihuahua!
The vale of tears is powerless before you.
Whether Christ is born, or is not born, you
put paid to fate, it abdicates
under the Christmas lights.

And Yet Again - by Esther Phillips

{ Poem }

Tonight I want to offer you
/ this moonlight cupped in a purple
/ flower; this chorus of crickets
/ holding no grudge…

from Tell Them - by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner

{ Poem }

I prepared the package
/ for my friends in the states
/ the dangling earrings woven
/ into half moons black pearls glinting
/ like an eye in…

From the Intestines of a Mystical Dog - by Valeria Melchioretto

{ Poem }

My mother kept her Swiss watch in the remoteness
/ of the master bedroom, in her sacred wardrobe drawer,
/ in that handbag which…

Girls’ Songs for Seafarers, III - by Hamish Maclaren

{ Poem }

I will knit him a foam-white jersey,
/ Soft as the breast of the mew;
/ Or, if he prefers, he
/ …

‘I will make you brooches and toys for your delight’ - by Robert Louis Stevenson

{ Poem }

I will make you brooches and toys for your delight
/ Of bird-song at morning and star-shine at night.
/ I will make a…

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The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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