Poem of the Month - December 2007

Aonghas MacNeacail mows e’s meaddie wi a minimalist tractor gruppit ticht atween e’s hurdies e hirples owre the windlestrae lik Quixote oan a pownie e’s tousie heid, a cast o wool is trauchelt bae a clatch win sair that blaws doo aff the Carlops Hill wi a smirr that wad blin e’s ee buit aonghas’ sicht steys sturdie yet oan the reuch that lies afore im as throu the girse e draws a sway dirlin swirlie riggs o gàidhlig Andrew McCallum from The Eildon Tree, Issue 14 Summer 2007 Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

The Inspiration for the Poem Andrew says: 'The inspiration for the poem is straucht-forrit eneuch.  A wis comin hame frae ma wark ane efternuin an A spied Aonghas, oan ane o thae ‘hurlie-oan’ lawn-mowers, oot cuttin e’s gress; an the cast o im pit me in mind o a kynd o Scottish ‘Don Quijote’ oan a tousie wee pownie.  Sae whan A gat hame A set doon ti mak that eemage.   An then A thocht: there’s sumphin ‘quixotic’ aboot makin poetry thir days in the gàidhlig (tho no near as much as there is aboot makin it in Scots!).  Sae A wrocht that notion intae the poem an aa.  An there it wis! Aonghas is ane o the jewels o Scottish poetry.  A howp the poem speiks abuin aa o a fondness fur the man.'

About the Poet Andrew McCallum was born just outside Cleghorn, brought up in Carnwath, far frae his hame did wander on reaching his majority, and now – after an absence of 25 years – bides back in Biggar, where he can see from his bedroom window, in a cleuch of the Hartree Hills, the farm cottage under the roof-tree of which his mother was born; a circumstance from which, being fond of circles and the completion thereof, he derives great satisfaction. He scribbles poetry, which has been published in twa-three magazines and a wheen o anthologies.  He is currently Secretary of Biggar Museum Trust’s Brownsbank Committee and convenor of Biggar Writers’ Group.