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Sceptical Scot

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Poetry

Doses of compassion from the doctor-poet

January 16, 2021 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Melting ice drips into a foaming stream. Pond Cottage image Ray Perman

“If it is our mission…to alleviate suffering as well as to preserve life …” 
The crystal-clear words of doctor-poet Gael Turnbull feel like a timely gift in our time of need.

On the threshold: songs and poems for a Covid-safe Christmas

December 6, 2020 by Fay Young 6 Comments

Covid has closed the doors at least for now.  But, there’s death-defying joy in Michael Marra’s song, a lockdown escape to be played loud and long.  Here’s Frida Kahlo cutting an intoxicatingly exotic dash dancing to Perdido among the locals in the singer’s favourite bar.  

Love and light: poetry and prose in the time of coronavirus

October 3, 2020 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Starry night sky

It’s abut humanity. Vision is the theme of #NationalPoetryDay 20-20 and our co-editor Fay finds solace and joy and sadness in poetry and prose written in the time of coronavirus

Willie Hunter 1940-2020

August 15, 2020 by Gordon Munro Leave a Comment

‘He suffered from depression, remarking once that ‘I’ve written books and poems to self-medicate my depression’. Poetry as medicine for dementia and depression is why the passing of Willie Hunter footballer, poet and ambassador is a loss to poetry as well as those that knew him.’

If you didn’t laugh

June 27, 2020 by Fay Young 1 Comment

Smiley face in the sky, 'probably for Captain Tom' Photo Jaybot CC BY-SA 2.0

“I wanted to upset everybody, including myself. Half the problem with the world is that half the people take themselves too seriously. The other half don’t take themselves seriously enough.”

Making music – and poetry

May 30, 2020 by David Gow Leave a Comment

Reading poetry in the pandemic is waxing, as people turn to verse for solace amidst their grief or for expressions of their own anger at needless suffering and death. We are not supposed to call the struggle to contain, suppress and/or beat the coronavirus a war yet it is to war poets people often reach […]

Strictly street dancing: a poem for a pandemic

May 16, 2020 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Coronavirus brings powerful new poignancy to a remarkable poetry collection gathered by Edinburgh’s former Makar, Christine De Luca to celebrate “those who daily undertake some of the lesser-seen jobs in our city…night bus drivers, lollipop ladies, binmen…now on the ‘frontline’

Being 90: a poem for a pandemic

May 2, 2020 by Fay Young 1 Comment

‘Perversely, in the wars evoked by politicians it was the flaming of youth untimely snuffed out. Such thoughts emerge from a new poem, written before the pandemic, the reflections of a man in his tenth decade, walking by the river near his home. And wondering…’

Address to a coronavirus

March 31, 2020 by Gordon Peters 1 Comment

“…the hale podium of panjandrums/ wha think they ken hoo tae run things…” including from their beds of isolation…with nods to Burns and the English Bard

Love in the time of COVID19

March 29, 2020 by Abi Rooley-Towle 1 Comment

‘We will need to be the Phoenix that rises from the flames – may our plumage be kindness, astuteness, carefulness and long-sightedness. These would be golden feathers indeed.’

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What’s new on Sceptical Scot

  • Doses of compassion from the doctor-poet January 16, 2021
  • Pandemic and absent solidarity January 10, 2021
  • Vaccination: new start or emperor’s clothes? January 10, 2021
  • Why do we need a Year of Childhood? January 9, 2021
  • Energy transition: vital spark of national renewal or dying ember? January 9, 2021
  • Another now, another Scotland December 6, 2020
  • Statistical amnesia December 6, 2020
  • Is the BBC helping British democracy? December 6, 2020
  • Empathy for women December 6, 2020
  • Free school meals and child poverty December 6, 2020

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