Poetry Map
We all know poems about Scotland but can the shape and nature of Scotland be drawn entirely in poetry? StAnza has set itself the challenge to see if this is the case. Find out more about the project and how to submit your poem by clicking here, or browse the poems using the map. Latest poems are listed below.
Poetry Map of Scotland: Poem no. 323
Balquhidder, Blessing of Angus
“Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you look to your left
you’ll see the spot called ‘Beanach Aonghais’
where, they say, St Angus, our patron saint,
first gazed up the valley. And seeing
these fine woods, fertile plains,
steep, shapely braes sloping
to sparkling waters - seeing such loveliness
he knelt and laid
his gentle benediction on the land.
And just round the corner
at Auchtoo farm we come to … ”
A filthy day in dark age Breadalbane. Gales
howl down the glen. A sky all cloud.
White horses on the loch. A clawing downpour.
On a hillock a figure, weighted
by his sodden robes, red face
and bald pate rain-lashed, shakes his crosier,
facing down the storm, and as it grows
he howls the louder,
hurling back at it
his indefatigable obstinacy.
Yes, they were tough buggers, the old tonsured ones,
their curses were brutal, their temper legendary
and when they blessed a place, it stayed blessed.
Donald Goodbrand Saunders
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All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.
Poetry Map of Scotland: poem no. 322
Brodick Old Quay
flood tide
a flash of silver
in the otter’s mouth
Gillian Dawson
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All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.
Poetry Map of Scotland: poem no. 321
Faces Land, North Ellen Street, Dundee
Here in Visage Land
all the gargoyles, spouts, grotesques
have flown from their buttresses
in a rooftop flit
leaving the haunt of ecclesiastics
to down-size in old age
closer to the shops.
Bereft of holy observances,
they stare uneasily
from this tenement block.
It will take time before
they find their feet
in a place as new as this.
Neil Leadbeater
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For instructions on how to submit your own poems, click here
All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.
Poetry Map of Scotland: poem no. 320
Windows Lit in the Evening
What are these houses about?
Why are they there at all?
And why when they turn on the lights
they close the blinds?
If you carefully peek through
there are people cooking
or resting
TVs on
confronted by empty couches
toys laid on the floor
coats, scarves carelessly hung somewhere.
Why are the people having windows looking to the fields
if they close the blinds at sleep?
What’s the view of their dreams
if not a valley
lit in the sunshine
and lit in the sunsets;
a topic to write about.
The mist is touching on the ground
harvesting the soil
growing itself to shapes of imagination
and hallucination
as they are seen
focused-less
behind steamed-up windows
underneath the numbing lights.
By the time sun breaks in
the ghostly figures will have disappeared
as they always do
leaving behind
hunted minds
moist land
and numb feelings.
Eleni Kotsira
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All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.
Poetry Map of Scotland: poem no. 319
Skirmish at Knockan Crag
The bairns o' the Cambrian dynasty,
the quartzites and limestones,
in Assynt they had gathered
to meet their foe head on.
They waited and they waited
and time was hanging slow.
No matter how they baited,
the gneisses did not show.
They clustered for a council
around the Knockan Crag.
Outliers on the horizon
had spotted something bad.
To the west the oceans parted,
their wait would soon be o'er,
the Lewisian Gneisses were gathering
and in time would breach thon shore.
Young Cambrians stood undaunted,
they did not fear the flow
of the old rocks on manoeuvre,
as they pressed in, sure but slow.
But they'd failed to spot the danger
and before the chance to blink (a short geological timescale)
the Moine was thrusting o'er them
and the Cambo's were doomed to sink.
Then it was all over,
but it all seemed upside down
to the geo experts gathered,
of whom many could only frown.
Ian Mcneish
Poet's note: The inspiration is the Moine Thrust: this is the location where geologists first discovered that tectonic plates do not necessarily lie youngest to the top. The poem is set as a battle for supremacy of the old and the new plates as they merged a long, long time ago.
View our full map of Scotland in Poems as it grows »
For instructions on how to submit your own poems, click here
All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.
Poetry Map of Scotland: poem no. 318
Breakfast on Union St
Your early rise
propels me into the day too soon.
Half awake, half asleep, resentful
as we step out into the morning’s silent frost.
Commuter breath steams the Victorian station.
We huddle beneath her great steel bird-cage roof
‘til I lose you for the day
among the smart suits and shiny shoes.
In a nearby café I take the early shift
scribbling on the couch by the window.
Dream warmth, and music seeps through
the grind of rattling beans.
Then, the waitress arrives
and a cocoa smile blooms
on the face of my foaming cappuccino.
I smile back.
Eileen Farrelly
View our full map of Scotland in Poems as it grows »
For instructions on how to submit your own poems, click here
All poems from our Poetry Map of Scotland are subject to copyright and should not be reproduced otherwise without the poet's permission.