Winter’s Awa Noo the snaw creeps fae the braes And is gaen: Noo the trees clap on their claes Ane be ane: Yonder owre the windy muir Flees the craw; And cries into the caller air, Winter’s awa! William Soutar (1898 – 1943) from Seeds in the Wind: poems in Scots for children, rev. and enlgd. …
Elspeth has passed Elspeth has passed no warnings no goodbye’s the belief she held in me in a single line of precious words became my life raft through deep waters to grow a poet a working class woman poet from shame and fracture Elspeth knew what to do she believed in me in my past …
From Sabbath Poems VIII. Always in the distance the sound of cars is passing on the road, that simplest form going only two ways, both ways away. And I have been there in that going. But now I rest and am apart, a part of the form of the woods always arriving from all directions …
Note to Wang Wei How could you be so happy, now some thousand years dishevelled, puffs of dust? It leaves me uneasy at last, your poems teaze me to the edge of tears and your fate. It makes me think. It makes me long for mountains & blue waters. Makes me wonder how much to …
The March Burn Whan Ah’d sat thur lang eneuch, trauchlt tae ma feet, dichtit awa the stour and blawn leaves, the draibles and moose-keech Ah wis hauf-smoorit in; efter Ah’d shauchlt roon tae try and wairm ma banes, jiggin frae fit tae fit, and aw the while ettlin tae unnerstaun whit this place wis …
I Walked Through the Medieval Town I walked through the medieval town in the evening or at dawn, I was very young or rather old. I didn’t have a watch or a calendar, only my stubborn blood measured the endless expanse. I could begin life, mine or not mine, over, everything seemed easy, apartment windows …
What can you say in seventeen syllables or less? Paperboats is excited to announce the launch of our Haiku Competition. We are inviting writers of all ages to submit their haiku to be in with the chance to win a cash prize and be published in a special Paperboats Zine issue dedicated to the traditional Japanese …
Haiku they spark a moment fireflies then the deeper dark deeper into the forest and deeper still – the silence soothing me asleep the hush of the rain leaf on the river this moment here now the oystercatcher’s cry – cold loneliness, the far north Alan Spence (b.1947) Clear Light, (Canongate: 2005) The language is unobtrusive, …
sin like a madman until you can’t do anything else no room for any more born born everything is always born thinking about it try not to only a kind deadly sincere man can show you the way here in the other world long life the wild pines want it too sick of it …
from The Deer Path To My Door here doing what I do best weeding reading drinking * tax bills deadlines work undone I plan a seat round the sycamore * time spent with black parrot queen of the night tulip bulbs why not working sitting * early bus to town for teachings better follow …