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Sceptical Scot

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Poetry

For future generations from our here and now

March 9, 2022 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Apricot Blossom: image Simon Williams CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Survival, war, poetry. What is it like to fight for your motherland with words and on the streets? Here is a message to transcend time and place.

Wishing love: a song and poem for the new year

January 9, 2022 by Abi Rooley-Towle 2 Comments

“Each being is like a grain of sand or a pebble that makes up a beautiful whole. All are unique and precious. Sometimes when I walk on the beach I look for particularly special pebbles or sea washed glass. But, in reality – they are all unique and make altogether, a wonderful beach…”

Kathleen Jamie: the poetry of natural resistance

December 17, 2021 by Asif Khan 1 Comment

portrait of Kathleen Jamie by Robin Gillanders

“But another important thing is that poetry is for everyone. Don’t for one minute think poetry was ever a highfalutin thing. It never was – particularly In Scotland. Think about the ballads, think about Burns – these are ordinary everyday folk.”

A kind of healing: poetry for endings and beginnings

September 29, 2021 by Fay Young 2 Comments

Winter-flowering spikes of Witch Hasel, yellow against a blue sky: photo Fay Young

How and when do you mark the passing of a pandemic which is not yet done? Politicians stumble, their messages swaying between promises of better days ahead and threats of worse to come. Can poets help us?

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 8 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 […]

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