Prestwick Airport - by
The other planes only come at night. They swoop in
grey and big-bellied.
war
Our Waking Breath: a poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine - by
Spring is here. Dear people of Ukraine,
your courage humbles us. Haud fast. Haud fast.
– And send them homewards, tae think again.
Good with our hands - by
There are factories tattooed
across our lands
hidden in the hills.
The Poem without a Title - by
I’ve lost a lot of things worth while my pleasure and my fun,
And the days of my captivity pass slowly one by one,
But as I sit in loneliness, each day more plain I see,
My body may be captive but my heart and mind are free.
Murmansk - by
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.
Bringing Them Home With the Saints - by
Harder
to find in the soundscape is our man,
the bell of his horn sanctifying the notes
in remembrance, or joy that the damned
thing is over
Lament for the Lads - by
Ochone o for na gillean departed, Sundered by seas from us, buried afar.Gone are the lads who were leal and high-hearted And we are now dreeing the dolours of war.’Illean, ’illean, ’illean, Sorrow may fade but your fame shall endure,’Illean, ’illean, ’illean, While flower’s in the forest and wind’s on […]
Twenty Years Ago - by
August 1934 There’s a thin rain of music comes across the poppied corn, Across the poppied corn and the sun-splashed sea,Crying, ‘Who’s a-going venturing, a-venturing, a-venturing, Who’s a-going venturing with all a man can be?’O, listen, listen, listen, for it’s far, far away, The dim remembered country where the ghostly pipers blow,Across […]
Craiglockhart - by
Sassoon, the elder, Sunday golfer; / Owen, bookish, gangly, pale – mingling / with the queue for the refectory.
Dulce Et Decorum Est - by
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The…
It Was Easier - by
Now over the map that took ten million years
/ Of rain and sun to crust like boiler-slag,
/ The lines of fighting men…
Cause and Effect - by
He thought before the war
/ Of conflicts, heroism, enemies
/ Who had to be crushed;
/ Causes that had to be fought for.
/
/ He had no…