Poem of the month - October 2006

In Strathfillan Fair Duncan, of the people of the carpenter, over from Glen Orchy, shelters from the rain behind the wall of the graveyard of St Fillan. Recalling the great songs he has made for this land and the small songs he has made to keep a smile on the face of his master he snuffles up through hairy nostrils and thinks, Eh! The e teanga airgead gu bheil  a h-annam. * For twenty years he has worked these hills and glens with his stalker’s eye and his poet’s accuracy and it seems to him that though he has its parts, its berries and flowers, its deer, the fay creatures, he has not yet grasped the whole of the Misty Corrie. Now he is to be parted from the land and the thought would break the heart behind this stone wall but then, Cha bhi mi a’cuir pogan air an t-airst   aig an Diuc Araghaidheal!** *   Ah! I’ve got a silver tongue in me. ** I will not be planting kisses      on the arse of the Duke of Argyll. by Robert Davidson, from his book Total Immersion (Scottish Cultural Press, 1998) Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet Robert Davidson lives in Highland.  His published collections to date are The Bird & The Monkey and Total Immersion together with a number of pamphlets. He was editor of the ground breaking anthology After The Watergaw. His book length sequence Columba was published by Poetry Scotland and featured in performance at Cromarty Book Festival and on radio. His song cycle Centring on a Woman's Voice was scored by a number of different composers, including William Gilmour, and performed at the Highland Festival.  Dunbeath Water - an oratorio was also scored by William Gilmour and performed at Crown Church, Dornoch Cathedral and Dunbeath.  He was Managing Editor of Northwords Magazine and, later, the online magazine Sandstone Review. He is the founder and Managing Editor of Sandstone Press Ltd, whose most recent publication is On the Atlantic Edge by Kenneth White.  Sandstone publishes the Vista Series of quickreads, the Meanmnach Series of Gaelic language fiction and is the UK's leading provider of Adult Literacy materials.  Under his leadership Sandstone is about to embark on an ambitious publishing programme beginning with Remzije Sherifi's autobiography Shadow Behind The Sun, which is 'about Kosova, good and evil, and Asylum Seekers in the UK'. Archived copies of Sandstone Review, and much else, can be found on the Sandstone Press website.

If you have enjoyed this poem, you can borrow a range of poetry from the Scottish Poetry Library, who also lend by post. Telephone 0131 557 2876 or email reception@spl.org.uk. For an online catalogue, poetry events listings and more featured poems, please visit the Scottish Poetry Library website.