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  • musical instruments
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musical instruments

Ring out, wild bells - by Private: Tennyson, Alfred Lord

{ Poem }

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

The Plinky-Boat - by Jen Hadfield

{ Poem }

Something near to true
night-darkness. The children
are playing the Plinky-Boat –
a xylophone made
from a reclaimed yoal

The Dalry Road Piano Showrooms - by Sarah Stewart

{ Poem }

All that night / it rained, and I traced my mistakes / up and down his spine.

This Is It - by William Letford

{ Poem }

Skint, baw ragged, poackets ful eh ma
/ fingers, cannae afford tae burn toast an
/ it’s November. Christmas is close. Av been
/ away bit…

grave dust - by Sam Riviere

{ Poem }

The night I got grave dust on my hands after dusting off my mother’s grave / I was lent a…

Lest… - by Vincent O'Sullivan

{ Poem }

‘They make so little difference, the brass, / the tears. Can’t you leave us be?’
/ …

Sonnet viii - by William Drummond of Hawthornden

{ Poem }

My Lute, bee as thou wast when thou didst grow
/ With thy greene Mother in some shadie Grove,
/ When immelodious Windes but…

A Quiet Life - by Anna Crowe

{ Poem }

in memory of my grandfather
/ (after Schubert’s piano sonata in C minor D958)
/
/
/ Hammer-blows ring on a hull in dry-dock
/ then dazzling sparks…

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.

from Life and Death (Echoes) - by William Ernest Henley

{ Poem }

The nightingale has a lyre of gold,
/ The lark’s is a clarion-call,
/ And the blackbird plays but…

Flute Player - by Farzaneh Khojandi

{ Poem }

Where is the real bazaar?
/ I want to buy an eyeful of kindness.
/ I want to dress my soul in hyperbole.
/ There’s a…

French Horn - by Jane Hirshfield

{ Poem }

For a few days only,
/ the plum tree outside the window
/ shoulders perfection.
/ No matter the plums will be small,
/ eaten only by squirrels…

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Scottish Poetry Library
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Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
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