THREE poems in Scots, the first two with the same leitmotif. They come from William Hershaw’s Stars Are The Aizles, Selected Poems in Scots 1976-2016. (Neep Heid Press.)
SURGO IN LUCEM
I wad be a whaup
wheeplan ower the grun,
I wad be a mavis
singan tae the sun.
I wad be a maggie
thrang in the siller birch,
I wad be wee reid rab
chirtin in the larch.
I wad be a sparrae
on a hummel buss,
I wad be a swalla
and flee ben aa a rush.
But I wadnae be a houlet
in the pit-mirk nicht,
I fain wad be a laverock
and rise intil the licht.
THE CLEIR WHITE LICHT
Orange is a fairin
that’s wi an aipple sib,
purpour’s the god-bairn
wha’s greetan in his crib.
Gowden is the gift
the Muin gies tae the Airth,
Sea-blae’s for a mither
jaupit by a birth.
Pine green is for guid luck
and needles that dounpour,
siller is an angel
or a fish left at the door.
Ruid is for a hearth
that lowes like a kind hert,
white is for the licht outby,
the licht that wales our airt.
GOD (IN THE IMAGE O A MINER)
God is a miner,
for aye is his shift,
heezan his graith, he howks in the luift.
God is a miner,
thrang at his work,
stars are the aizles he caws in the mirk.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here