war Archives - Scottish Poetry Library

Good with our hands - by Leyla Josephine

{ Poem }

There are factories tattooed
across our lands
hidden in the hills.

The Poem without a Title - by Jack Low

{ Poem }

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 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.

Bringing Them Home With the Saints - by Brian Johnstone

{ Poem }

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 Neil Munro

{ Poem }

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 J. B. Salmond

{ Poem }

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 Brian Johnstone

{ Poem }

Sassoon, the elder, Sunday golfer; / Owen, bookish, gangly, pale – mingling / with the queue for the refectory.

Dulce Et Decorum Est - by Wilfred Owen

{ Poem }

My friend, you would not tell with such high zest / To children ardent for some desperate glory, / The…

It Was Easier - by Ruthven Todd

{ Poem }

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 Alan Bold

{ Poem }

He thought before the war
/ Of conflicts, heroism, enemies
/ Who had to be crushed;
/ Causes that had to be fought for.
/
/ He had no…

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.

Logos - by JL Williams

{ Poem }

She walks on the charred ground, wings of smoke
/ from the bones of her home rising.
/
/ ‘Here was, there used to be,…

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