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  • growing up
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growing up

Burst - by Keeks Mc

{ Poem }

Re-examinin lives / Numbin fae reality
afore the urge tae stap up / arrives in a day or sae

My Heart Leaps Up - by William Wordsworth

{ Poem }

The Child is father of the Man;
And I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.

Healings 2 - by Kathleen Jamie

{ Poem }

At midnight the north sky is blues and greys, with a thin fissure of citrine just above the horizon. It’s light when you wake, regardless of the hour. At 2 or 4 or 6am, you breathe light into your body. A rose, a briar rose. A wild rose and its thorned stem. What did Burns […]

In Mrs Tilscher’s Class - by Carol Ann Duffy

{ Poem }

You could travel up the Blue Nile
with your finger, tracing the route
while Mrs Tilscher chanted the scenery.
Tana. Ethiopia. Khartoum. Aswân.

Poem for Myself on My Fiftieth Birthday - by Tom Buchan

{ Poem }

Never written a poem for yourself
/ have you, you daft old bugger? Well
/ here goes.
/
/ …

The First Kiss - by Russell Jones

{ Poem }

What a disappointment. Nothing like the movies,
/ nothing like the mind. A mass of muscles writhing,
/ an awkward hand on a tightened…

The Mower - by Vicki Feaver

{ Poem }

When I was young and miserable,
/ a misfit and a rebel,
/ almost never out of trouble,
/ desperate to escape school,
/ time dawdled.
/ …

To Kate at Twenty-Five - by Diana Hendry

{ Poem }

or as if in one brief flash I’d seen
/ a single track – yours forward, mine back.
/ …

Gap Year - by Jackie Kay

{ Poem }

Gap Year
/ (for Mateo)
/
/ I
/ I remember your Moses basket before you were born.
/ I’d stare at the fleecy white sheet for days, weeks,
/ willing…

Second Tooth - by Elizabeth Burns

{ Poem }

The first one came out the week of her birthday.
/ This second tooth’s harder: she pushes
/ and pushes at it with her…

Za vselej… - by Milan Jesih

{ Poem }

Za vselej je zastal otrok pred hišo
/ in naglo stekel proč – za vselej, deček.
/ Odrastel bo, vzhrumel in se utišal,
/ potoval, ljubil,…

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Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2026.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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