Spring Equinox dearest earth mother   of returning balance of welcome light to our lives of heat to our tired bones&spirits   this surreal winter now behind us healing regeneration in front time to plant seeds   of hope love thankfulness of sweet peas marigolds sunflowers in my dreams summer tides ebb&flow calling sounds of …

Zeitgeist Doggerel See the fools on the Hill staring at their                                                                                          …

The following poem by Alistair McIntosh was sent to us by Voice reader Christina McQuarrel. For the full transcript with associated notes please see here. The M77 Motorway Protest in Glasgow during the 1990s is reminiscent of the current protest against the HS2 High Speed Rail construction and can be seen as another example of …

For one who is exhausted, a blessing When the rhythm of the heart becomes hectic, Time takes on the strain until it breaks; Then all the unattended stress falls in On the mind like an endless, increasing weight. The light in the mind becomes dim. Things you could take in your stride before Now become …

Strongylocentrotus Purpuratus Since we met over that weak latté that you claimed was too strong and I indulged in one excellently crisp croissant of which you ate half without my permission in Spitalfields where Guatamalan coffee beans dress the shelves of Crispin’s where they do the best eggs and you can’t unhear City gents loudly …

The Peace of Wild Things   When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron …

Prayer Some days, although we cannot pray, a prayer utters itself. So, a woman will lift her head from the sieve of her hands and stare at the minims sung by a tree, a sudden gift. Some nights, although we are faithless, the truth enters our hearts, that small familiar pain; then a man will …

Three Dollars Cash Three dollars cash For a pair of catalog shoes Was what the midwife charged My mama For bringing me. “We wasn’t so country then,” says Mom, “You being the last one— And we couldn’t, like We done When she brought your Brother, Send her out to the Pen And let her pick …

Jimmy Five Daughters 1912 baby born third wean first boy tae Isabella Lochhead David Quarrell Old Rutherglen Road Tenement Gorbals trams trundled past as baby arrived as he came into the world survival tenuous given mortality figures of that time. survive wee jimmy did my father Jimmy Five Daughters think he be proud of his …