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  • Scottish Parliament
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Scottish Parliament

The Morrow-bird - by Kathleen Jamie

{ Poem }

Stones, it won’t be sufficient
just to sit on your dowps and say ‘nay’.
Trees, don’t be waving your arms about
in some new breeze every day.

The Beginning of a New Song - by Iain Mac a’ Ghobhainn
Iain Crichton Smith

{ Poem }

Let her new river shine on a day
That is fresh and glittering and contemporary;

Let it be true to itself and to its origins
Inventive, original, philosophical

The Voyage - by James Robertson

{ Poem }

And if or when the people’s surge subsides
/ to tourist trickles from this present spate,
/ do not relax or quietly desiccate,
/ do not…

Wolves - by Douglas Lipton

{ Poem }

for the new Scottish Parliament
/
/ The icy rain is spitting
/ on the pines and golden birches.
/ Hangings of black cloud
/ are torn apart by…

For the Opening of the Scottish Parliament, 9 October 2004 - by Edwin Morgan

{ Poem }

Open the doors! Light of the day, shine in; light of the mind, shine out!
/ We have a building which is…

In Praise of Bridges - by Tom Bryan

{ Poem }

I.
/
/ On our immigrant Canadian street
/ we heard at least twenty words for frozen,
/ spoken by snow-blonde children named for Icelandic volcanoes,
/ Ukrainian saints…

Coming back to Meall Fuar Mhonaidh - by Anne MacLeod

{ Poem }

February, and the rising light leaves nothing illegible.
/ Meall Fuar Mhonaidh, snow-fisted, risks its name,
/ a lump of rock, rounded; a muscled…

Loss - by Dorcas Symms

{ Poem }

The sound of horses’ hooves in market square
/ recalls the riding out to mark the bounds,
/ the summer rites and battles fought…

Morning Glory - by Ken Cockburn

{ Poem }

1. SPL, Summer 1999
/
/ A photograph taken upstairs in the Library
/ of one of your ‘kinetic poems’,
/ the upright rotating bluegreen barber’s pole…

The Canny Moment - by Douglas Lipton

{ Poem }

Pu awa the endill scheit o winter.
/ Yank it aff fae the pikes an runkled scruif
/ for the canny moment. Fae…

Labour - by Rab Wilson

{ Poem }

The bricht rays o the Winter Solstice daws,
/ Streakin oot owre the Mauchline Basin Plain,
/ Lichtin oan a slumberin colossus,
/ The…

Wounded Dancer - by Tessa Ransford

{ Poem }

The earth as holy ground
/
/ The dancer holds her breath
/ homo-would-be-wise walks the earth
/ boots up and strides the earth
/ which now lies…

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