This year's Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for poetry pamphlets (run by the National Library of Scotland) has been won by The Angel and the Aipple (Perjink Press), featuring poetry by Mary Johnston.
The award is for the pamphlet as an entity. Mary Johnston's poems offer a warm doric perspective on the Fall, from the viewpoints of both Adam and Eve. Here Adam recalls the passing of his spirited mate.
ADAM
There's a lochan near by,
the marra o the een faar first I saa her
and there she wis, sleepin, I thocht;
nae like her ti sleep in the day,
up afore's aa an roadit.
I steed an lookit at her,
bonny as the first day I saa her.
I sat doon aside her an teen her hand,
she niver opent her een,
she niver smiled at me,
jist lay there, sleepin bonny.
Fen oor son yestreen had crossed
the hinmaist boon she'd winnert,
tears rennin doon her face,
Fit wull it be like? That's ma Eve!
Aye wintin ti ken!
I lay doon aside her an held her in ma airms,
fit am I gyan ti dee athoot her?
marra=equal; roadit=ready to start; boon=boundary
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