my attempt at a poem in Scots!

Come Awa fir a Daunder

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first draft

We meet by a charm of crossbills,
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Sadly I couldn't make it through to Edinburgh for the launch of Anon 7 last night, but my voice did! Contributors to the magazine were asked to email recordings of our poems and apparently they were played in the "poet's chamber" at the launch.
You can listen to the recordings here. There are roughly 35 mins worth of poetry and you can hear me read my 'Eyewitnesses' poem at around 21 mins 30 secs against a background of bird calls and the like!

first draft -

The Silver Darlings

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Holiday time!

I'm off to the Isle of Lewis for a week. Traveling up through Skye, getting the ferry over to Harris then driving up and across the island to Barvas to stay with my aunt and uncle. I haven't been back 'home' for ten years, since both of my grandparents died.

I spent every summer there as a kid on my gran and seanair's croft, I'm looking forward to reliving this part of my childhood and taking my own children there to experience the long white sandy beaches, the machair, the huge Atlantic waves, the sprawling moors. The photo below is of my seanair and his parents, his mother is my namesake. It's the peat gathering time of year so no doubt we'll all be out chucking the peats onto the back of the tractor just like when I was a child. I'm going to buy a nice, new A5 notepad to take with me to gather plenty poetry material.