ships and boats Archives - Scottish Poetry Library

Filmpoem 34 / The Shipwright’s Love Song - by Alastair Cook

{ Poem }

A filmpoem based on a poem by Jo Bell.

Filmpoem 43 / Lifted - by Alastair Cook

{ Poem }

‘Lifted’ is a poem by Jo Bell; this film is a Filmpoem production for the Poetry Society in partnership with the Canal & River Trust as part of the Canal Laureate 2013 project.

Murmansk - by James Sinclair

{ Poem }

He minded dem getting torpedoed i da White Sea,
hit blew da boo clean aff.
Da Bulksheid, he held though an dey limpit inta Arcangel,
whaur shu wis lashed ta da peir, an micht still be dere yet.

I am dark and smooth, polished by many hands, but the one hand that I loved has gone, so let me swing to the rudder’s motion, moored in the lee, alone. I knew the change of weather by his grip and felt his hunter’s passion like a tide, and the herring scales he rubbed on […]

The Prows o’ Reekie - by Lewis Spence

{ Poem }

O wad this braw hie-heapit toun Sail aff like an enchanted ship, Drift owre the warld’s seas up and doun, And kiss wi’ Venice lip to lip, Or anchor into Naples’ Bay A misty island far astray Or set her rock to Athens’ wa’, Pillar to pillar, stane to stane, The cruikit spell o’ her […]

Girl of the red-gold hair - by Somhairle MacGillEain
Sorley MacLean

{ Poem }

Girl of the red-gold hair, far from you, o love, my aim; girl of the red-gold hair, far from you my sorrow. Tonight on the Sound of Raasay my hand is on the helm, listlessly the wind shakes the sail, my heart is dumb, aching for your music, today and tomorrow indifferent to my expectation. […]

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

Submarine - by Tom Buchan

{ Poem }

/ I marched along the cliff
/ looking for insights to clear my thick head
/ and saw a submarine surfacing down in the Firth
/
/ rising
/ shaking…

The Greater Sea - by Rab Wilson

{ Poem }

Oor boat is rigged tae face the greater sea,
/ The day daws blithely whan we must set sail.
/ Hou aften hae we…

The Old Nobby - by Ian Hamilton Finlay

{ Poem }

My hull is leaking like a sieve,
/ The paint is flaking off my hatches,
/ My heart’s not worn upon my sleeve
/ (But on…

Every Woman - by Aiko Greig

{ Poem }

Who can gauge our range or pace? Every woman, / a signal tower, an illusion, a ship bearing dead ahead.

Aald Boat - by John Peterson

{ Poem }

Doo minds dee, whan da wind stöd wast,
/ I’d lay twa linns, and rin dee doon,
/ An tak a stane, an step…

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