Scotia Extremis by Andy Jackson and Brian Johnstone sampler
Scotia Extremis brings together a gallimaufry of poets to take a sideways look at what makes - and makes up - Scotland by examining the country's 'icons'. Featuring specially commissioned works by the National Makar Jackie Kay, plus acclaimed poets including Robert Crawford, Imtiaz Dharker, Douglass Dunn, Vicki Feaver, John Glenday and almost 100 more, all are tasked with probing extremes.
Scotia Extremis brings together a gallimaufry of poets to take a sideways look at what makes - and makes up - Scotland by examining the country's 'icons'. Featuring specially commissioned works by the National Makar Jackie Kay, plus acclaimed poets including Robert Crawford, Imtiaz Dharker, Douglass Dunn, Vicki Feaver, John Glenday and almost 100 more, all are tasked with probing extremes.
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Melancholy Thistle, Garvald Quarry<br />
Your tribe is famous<br />
for its gregariousness<br />
<strong>and</strong> ferocity.<br />
You’re the odd one out –<br />
spikeless, solitary,<br />
a great big softie.<br />
An apothecary’s cure<br />
for melancholy,<br />
not melancholy yourself,<br />
a watcher, not a joiner-in,<br />
you st<strong>and</strong> sentinel<br />
at the edges of fields<br />
shaking your huge<br />
<strong>and</strong> heavy head<br />
<strong>and</strong> quietly laughing.<br />
Vicki Feaver<br />
The Melancholy Thistle is said <strong>by</strong> some to have been the original badge<br />
of the House of Stuart, instead of the Cotton Thistle. Garvald Quarry is<br />
a stone’s throw from Brownsbank where Hugh MacDiarmid wrote<br />
A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.<br />
heather ~ thistle<br />
17
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