Hello, I am Scotland
Who wakes every morning
in a brilliant mood as auburn bursts
cast filigree nets over foreheads
and swingparks and paint themselves
on pavements. Up gets the brickworks,
frost needles arms, winds shriek
through my Munros, gossiping
as another small dug sinks
into deep snow; and the day floats down
like a feather from the sky. Ach,
barks a father’s voice caught
in the breeze, let him sing his
song and paint whitever it is
he cares tae paint. I’ve a soft spot fur daft
romantics and who wouldnae
grasp for it, when it really could be it.
My cities breathe in the rivers,
salute the environmentalists: snail
savers, wall walkers, ally
of Elm and Ash. Every day my oceans
swallow five hundred thousand footprints,
strangle gulls in fitted laughter,
emit the salty corpse; seasplash
spears a drunken busker
mixing up his cluster chords.
I, too, forget such simple things,
perhaps have never known
all the numbers of the buses
and their routes, the vagaries in roadworks;
but I do remember bonfires
in aw them bellies as whole families
politicised breakfast over toasted soldiers
and eggs unfit and fit for dipping.
in a brilliant mood as auburn bursts
cast filigree nets over foreheads
and swingparks and paint themselves
on pavements. Up gets the brickworks,
frost needles arms, winds shriek
through my Munros, gossiping
as another small dug sinks
into deep snow; and the day floats down
like a feather from the sky. Ach,
barks a father’s voice caught
in the breeze, let him sing his
song and paint whitever it is
he cares tae paint. I’ve a soft spot fur daft
romantics and who wouldnae
grasp for it, when it really could be it.
My cities breathe in the rivers,
salute the environmentalists: snail
savers, wall walkers, ally
of Elm and Ash. Every day my oceans
swallow five hundred thousand footprints,
strangle gulls in fitted laughter,
emit the salty corpse; seasplash
spears a drunken busker
mixing up his cluster chords.
I, too, forget such simple things,
perhaps have never known
all the numbers of the buses
and their routes, the vagaries in roadworks;
but I do remember bonfires
in aw them bellies as whole families
politicised breakfast over toasted soldiers
and eggs unfit and fit for dipping.
We jumped without parachutes,
so they’d have you think (skirted
around each other’s glances
like window cleaners avoiding
a high-up mucky splodge); it wasn’t that
at all, more a faith in flying.
by Michael Pedersen from Oyster (Edinburgh: Polygon, 2017)
Lochan na Lairige
goo.gl/maps/P3mBYBs9E9oA7gT47 <--- Link Google Maps
Ben Lawers
goo.gl/maps/F5PqSfbjjLRXCh1q8 <--- Link Google Maps
Bridge of Balgie to Loch Lyon
Ayr beach
goo.gl/maps/ADXEm4RnR63ycxR17 <--- Link Google Maps
Edinburgh
goo.gl/maps/isfCg7ikUKeg8wnV9 <--- Link Google Maps
Loch Doon and Castle
goo.gl/maps/igXLpsx1KmKx87SD8 <--- Link Google Maps
Galloway Forest Park
goo.gl/maps/cfXHe48Wat6cwRi68 <--- Link Google Maps
Loch Lomond
goo.gl/maps/WkW3zagMZe6g1d8Q7 <--- Link Google Maps
Kilchurn Castle
g.page/Kilchurn?share <--- Link Google Maps
Stirling Castle
goo.gl/maps/NNUNXkqptcbbcNUU7 <--- Link Google Maps
On the road to Glen Coe
goo.gl/maps/AcbHZoBKN7na3XRb7 <--- Link Google Maps
Ballachulish Slate Quarry
goo.gl/maps/AcbHZoBKN7na3XRb7 <--- Link Google Maps
The Three Sisters
goo.gl/maps/X5uNbYEt8QRwpSn56 <--- Link Google Maps
Saltcoats
goo.gl/maps/F9VKHCqrcGcEPEJ86 <--- Link Google Maps
Portencross castle
goo.gl/maps/wKZqoeUibcePYFLK7 <--- Link Google Maps
Prestwick beach
goo.gl/maps/RNoNX8dZdwp4PEL88 <--- Link Google Maps
Glasgow
goo.gl/maps/u3jTsi6gmxwC4KfA9 <--- Link Google Maps
Laigh Milton Viaduct
goo.gl/maps/qMDuYjQzE3K13BY58 <--- Link Google Maps