Scots poem of the month - April 2006

Beds I haud the shougly mainframe till it's steady, you fit the siderail sib till they are wed, we screw thegither slats and suin mak ready the new bocht self-assembly pine-wuid bed. Our auld ane wis gey duin, it's mattress sunk, wi us sailed out ower faur on life's lang sea. Aiblins this snod and weel-faured double bunk will tak us hame tae win the final quay. You and me baith: whit is it that we big? An ark in time, that sails through joys and pains, an ower-coupit boat, wanchancy rig that aw our fuilish hopes and fears contains, whaur we twa dream our nichts and love and lig, until the day we need twa singel anes. By William Hershaw From Fifty Fife Sonnets - Coarse and Fine (Akros, 2006) Poem supplied by the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet William Hershaw was born in Newport-on-Tay in 1957. Following an M.A. degree in English at Edinburgh University from 1976-1979 and a year at Craiglockhart Teacher Training College, he became an English teacher in 1980. He is Principal Teacher of English at Beath High School in Cowdenbeath. His first poems in Scots were published in the anthology Fower Brigs Tae A Kinrik - 4 Fife Poets (Aberdeen University Press, 1987), along with Tom Hubbard, Harvey Holton and John Brewster. In 1998 the Scottish Cultural Press published his elegies for the Fife mining industry, The Cowdenbeath Man. In 2003 he won the Callum MacDonald Memorial Award for his pamphlet Winter Song. His most recent collection is 50 Fife Sonnets - Coarse and Fine published by Akros, from which the poem Beds is taken. Willie is also a musician and songwriter and his Scots songs are available on the Hershaws' CD A Fish Laid at the Door which he recorded in 2004 with his sisters Roseann and Louise.

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.