Holy Saturday Poem

This weekend's* Saturday poem in The Scotsman was the title poem from The Ambulance Box**. Great publicity for the collection! I'd heard several weeks ago that it was happening and knew the date but it only occurred to me in the middle of the week that it would be the Holy Saturday poem. An appropriate date, given the piece is about, as the paper neatly puts it,

"THE inextricable link between our suffering, our sense of celebration and our hopes for healing".

Many thanks to the good folk of the Scottish Poetry Library for choosing it.

*I'd have posted this yesterday but couldn't get on to Blogger for technical reasons.

**Please note that the layout isn't quite right in the paper, because the indentation hasn't come out at all. You'll just have to read it in the book for the full effect on the page.

Poet of the Month, Once Again!

We've reached the half-way point of March, which means I take over the mantle of Scottish Poetry Library poet of the month from Rob. This means that, until the end of the month, "The Invention of Zero" will greet you whenever the cyberwaves deposit you on the SPL's home page. Of course, once March has ended, you can still find the poems Rob and I chose in our respective entries in the Poets' A to Z.

The Ambulance Box

The day has come! Today, 1 March 2009, is the official publication date for The Ambulance Box and Rob A Mackenzie's marvellous book, The Opposite of Cabbage. To celebrate, here's the title poem from my collection:

The Ambulance Box

No one can swear how it fell
into our hands. No one

can fathom its substance or build.
It mystifies all

who think of themselves as whole
but those of us huddled

round our various wounds
are at home with the box

and all it contains.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxHear us,
shoulder to shoulder in the dusk,

celebrate life — sprained and splinted
broken
xxxxxxxxxxxbandaged
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxset to heal

A Short Piece for a Short Season (and more)

"Wandelvakanties Dicht bij Huis", one of the poems from The Ambulance Box, has just appeared today as part of the short season of other poets Jane Holland is running at the moment on her Raw Light blog. I've updated the sidebar with links to it and several other poems, including one in the wonderful this collection project.

Incidentally, Jane has just become a commissioning editor at Salt. It's part of an exciting development down there, with Ian Gregson also taking the lead in developing Salt's Welsh list. Keep watching that space carefully!

Lullaby

this is the arm that held you
this is the hand that cradled your cold feet

these are the ears that heard you
whimper and cough throughout your brush with light

this is the chest that warmed you
these are the eyes that caught your glimpse of life

this is the man you fathered—
his voided love, his writhen pride and grief

(This poem appears in Andrew Philip: A Sampler and will also be in The Ambulance Box.)