This visionary view of the city of Glasgow - with cultural references taking in Moses, a levitating Mercedes, and Elgar’s first symphony - comes from Alan Riach’s new collection, The Winter Book (Luath Press, £8.99). The themes of the collection range from the contemporary and public, such as the independence issue, to poignantly personal reflections on family bereavement.
THE APPROACH: GLASGOW
INDEPENDENT
It’s crossing the hill from Ayrshire
in the biggest Mercedes you ever saw,
more powerful than anything you’ve driven then or since,
like Moses through the sea held back, before and after you
touch-steering, light, and graceful as a ship
and almost airborne now coming over the curve in sunshine, blue,
the bright Atlantic breeze, and down below in front of you it’s all
laid out, presented: the lean white pencil of the science centre tower,
the University, the Finnieston Crane, the Armadillo, lemon wedge,
the soaring keeps and battlements of Ilium,
the schemes and grey estates off to the east,
the Campsie Fells ahead, Dumbarton and Dumgoyne
and the high road to Ben Lomond, way over in the west.
You’re approaching the long sweep down to the valley of Clyde,
and the car is full of the first long movement, nobility, simplicity,
of Elgar’s first great symphony, with all to come in prospect:
you’re five miles south of the river, heading north to the city
you’re over a thousand feet above the sea
you’re flying and the day ahead is freedom.
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