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Scottish Poetry Library

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.

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.

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.’

Remembering Edwin Morgan at 100

May 2, 2020 by James McGonigal Leave a Comment

Edwin Morgan became Scotland’s first makar in 2004: a tribute to him on his centenary from his biographer. ‘He was an acrobat of words and identities. Perhaps his own identity as a gay man, risking censure or imprisonment through most of his life, encouraged that ability to shape-shift.’

A gleam of starlight from the window: poetry for a pandemic

March 28, 2020 by Fay Young 1 Comment

The Moon, framed by trees, picture Tommy Perman

Poems and songs for Earth Hour on Friday March 27 (ICYMI)…”In our time of isolation, whether enforced or voluntary, there’s something comforting in that notion of stars clustering together for so very much longer than human life on earth.”

Changing dirt into something beautiful

July 12, 2018 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Traces of seaweed left by the tide

On yet another day when headlines of old and new media hammer home the madness and mayhem of 2018 politics, here’s a chance to let different words swirl and swell with Rachel McCrum’s Glassblower Dances, Poem of the Moment

Another spring: poem for an elusive season

April 3, 2018 by Fay Young Leave a Comment

Beech wood bursting into life with wild garlic

Is winter never going to end? Seeking hope in poetry, Fay Young finds a kind of answer in Christina Rossetti’s poem Another Spring, whose sad-sweet longing seems to capture the mood of the moment.

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