Poems
Welcome to my poetry page: some are in English, some in Scots.
Sometimes we need to listen to our bodies. I found that the simple act of walking, by myself, helped me process a lot of difficult experiences. On a Residency funded by the UNESCO City of Literature programme & AIR Litteratur in Sweden, I went walking and wrote. These poems from the mountains and lakes around Bengtsfors are combined with the poems I've written on my walks by the Water of Leith in the Colinton Dell area of Edinburgh, and a series of shorter poems exploring the connection between inner reconnection with the self and outward steps, in my pamphlet 'Wander', published by Blue Diode Press (2025).
Published in Dreich magazine (2024), and included alongside new poems in Wander (2025) available here from Blue Diode.
Reading of 'Forward Deck', about the wish to evade death /
protect our bodies from ageing, and gene technology.
Winner of the Genomics Forum Poetry Prize.
Hermony / Seein Distance
The distance atween
twa frequencies o soond
is whit perfects thaim,
heard thegither.
Yer stanes cam awa
fae their cauf-grund tae shape
an airt whance ye micht
leuk back on it.
Nae city's sic a city as it thinks,
no sae faur fae the land lain aneath it.
Glesgae lilts, shairp twaloors, tae its redd -
stanes tae their rocks, glass tae its sandy bed -
I cam miles awa fae ye, juist tae fare
the seein distance whilk isnae there.
Published in Look Up Glasgow, Freight Books (2013).
Poetry Readings and Commissions
I have performed poetry readings at festivals and am available for poetry commissions where the subject matter interests me - usually anything to do with our ecological relationship with the planet; as well as history and social issues.
