Saturday 15 October 2022
Fame and Fortune the Slappers Way
Friday 14 October 2022
Calamity All Round Day
Thursday 13 October 2022
Nothing to Say with all this Football
Monday 10 October 2022
Mooning...
Saturday 8 October 2022
Ticket to Ride
Thursday 6 October 2022
OAP Aid
Tuesday 4 October 2022
Soup, Spiders and Australian Railways
Sunday 2 October 2022
A Scottish Poem
Pilgrimage: Being the thoughts of an ex-soldier at Ypres, 8/8/28
Me, an’ Jean, an’ the bairn;
The wee lad spierin’ an’ starin’;
Daunderin’ quiet an’ douce-like doun
The Menin road into Ypres toun.
‘Did ye kill ony Germans here?’
Man, it’s sair what a laddie’ll spier.
An’ Jean whispers ‘Wheest!’ – an’ there comes
The band wi’ its trumpets an’ drums.
There’s a glower i’ the wee laddie’s ee.
Ay, he’s ettlin’ ti sojer like me.
An’ Jean whispers low in her pain:
‘Lord, Ye’ll no lat it happen again!’
Syne the Gate whaur the weary feet trod
Like a white kind o’ promise fae God.
An’ in silence we’re spierin’ an’ starin’
– Me, an’ Jean, an’ the bairn.
Me an’ Jean
Her wi’ a saft warm licht in her een,
Thankfu’ that I am come through,
But trimlin’ a wee at the mou’,
Prood o’ the medals I wear –
The same as the Prince stan’in’ there;
Her hand grippin’ hard in mine here
– Oh Jeannie! Oh Jeannie, my dear! –
An’ I ken a’ the things she wud say
An’ Geordie was fond o’ her tae.
We saw Geordie’s bivvy yestreen,
Me an’ Jean.
Me,
Lookin’ yont ower the years juist tae see
Yon War like the ploy of a loon;
But a queer kind o’ shiver rins doon
My back as the things dribble in
– A hallikit lauch i’ the din,
The sangs, an’ the mud, an’ the claes,
An’ my buits, an’ yon glint through the haze
O’ anither lad’s bayonet, an’ lichts
Makin’ day o’ the darkest o’ nichts,
An’ the drinkin’ our tea fae ae can.
– Oh Geordie! Oh Geordie, my man!
An’ – deil tak’ this dust i’ my ee.
Me!
J. B. Salmond
from The Old Stalker and Other Verses (Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1936)
The poems were often written in an Arbroath dialect.
I found this on the excellent Scottish Poetry Library.
Saturday 1 October 2022
Whithorn Woman
Thursday 29 September 2022
Crash Dive!
Tuesday 27 September 2022
Vaccination and Microsoft equal Anger
Sunday 25 September 2022
Night Trip in the 80s
Thursday 22 September 2022
Moronic Media
Wednesday 21 September 2022
Cancelled Truth
Tuesday 20 September 2022
Walk the Lines, by Mark Mason
Monday 19 September 2022
The Monarchs Funeral and Twitter
Saturday 17 September 2022
Saturday Queuing
Friday 16 September 2022
Nothing to say Friday