Poem
WN Herbert
SEALSCREED
SEALSCREED
SEALSCREED
Thi mune is risin rantie reidabune thi auld sea waa
as tho it werr thi neb o a seal
come at some lassie's caa –
come steam-an-snowkin fae thi deeps
at some pair lassie’s caa.
Uts screed o licht flochts on thi firth:
turn heelstergowdie tae
see whit thi lift prents wi a skiff –
whit huz thi mune tae say?
But nicht’s aa ink, sae aa it’s dicht
is waly walaway.
© 2012, WN Herbert
From: Omnesia
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland
From: Omnesia
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books, Northumberland
WN Herbert
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1961)
WN Herbert – called by Don Paterson “One maverick genius of a compatriot” – is a prolific, and prolifically virtuosic, poet, both influential in contemporary Scottish poetry and also inimitable. Following on from the previous generation of poets like MacDiarmid and Edwin Morgan, he writes in the Scots dialect as well as in exuberant, inventive English. One of his subjects, whatever his poem is ...
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SEALSCREED
Thi mune is risin rantie reidabune thi auld sea waa
as tho it werr thi neb o a seal
come at some lassie's caa –
come steam-an-snowkin fae thi deeps
at some pair lassie’s caa.
Uts screed o licht flochts on thi firth:
turn heelstergowdie tae
see whit thi lift prents wi a skiff –
whit huz thi mune tae say?
But nicht’s aa ink, sae aa it’s dicht
is waly walaway.
From: Omnesia
SEALSCREED
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