I went to primary school in a vast council housing scheme in Glasgow. The school was called Stonedyke and there were forty pupils in each class. This was in the days near the end of the post-World War Two baby boom. School pupils were from the immediate neighbourhood and were from families where the mums tended to be housewives and the dads tended to work long hours in factories and industry. My dad was a slater's labourer and my mum bucked the trend and worked full-time in a shop.
It might seem like an unlikely place for poetry. And yet, this was an aspirational era, and an aspirational school, and this is where I was introduced to poetry. One of my favourites from when I was about ten years old is Aince Upon a Day by William Soutar,. It's written in Scots, and our class learned to recite it. Odd, when you think of it, since Scottish children were routinely discouraged from talking in Scots in school at that time. It was regarded as 'bad English', rather than being seen in its geographical and cultural context, i.e. as a separate strand with connections to Denmark and Germany and so on.
Anyway, here we are, over fifty years later, and I've had my very own pamphlet of poetry published! Perhaps curiously, none of it is in Scots. But I'm sure the code-switching of my childhood helped arouse my curiosity about exploring language. Here it is:
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| Reading the Landscape |
Reading the Landscape brings together poems previously published in literary magazines along with new work. It's published by Hedgehog Poetry Press as a result of their 'White Label - Quatre' poetry pamphlet competition.
The cover shows a scene from woodland in the Eildon Hills in the Scottish Borders. Landscape is key to my writing as landscapes and the natural world fill me with hope. The pamphlet contains poems that explore and relish the natural landscape as well as exploring inner mindscapes. You can read more about it (and be given the option to buy it) via that link.
It's a big moment for me, to have that first poetry pamphlet published after years of mostly writing prose. I'm now working on material for a second. In the meantime, having long been a fan and supporter of poetry publishing from Scottish poets and beyond, it gladdens my heart to see my pamphlet take its place with these other poetry books!
