UNICE Buchanan won joint first prize in this year's McCash Scots Poetry Competition with this paean to a Scottish river.

These are the opening verses. The best poems from the competition, 2003-2012, are published in The Smeddum Test (Kennedy and Boyd, available from the Oswald Street Bookshop, near Central Station, Glasgow).

LOOM OF THE ESK

I hae carvit a loom

o the finest stane

an filled it wi a siller warp

that rins fae the hills

tae the shore

I hae spun the threids

o the Water o Saughs

fae the birl o the reel

whaur the waters ream

at the infa o Mark an Lee

I hae craftit a wab

fae the threids o the sang

o the lintie, the throstle

the lark, the kek o the kae

the plaint o the teuchit an whaup

I hae harnisht my weft

wi meysie an vetch,

wi the night-black silk

o the deepest pool

where the gowden saumon lie

ream=foam; infa= inflow; kae=jackdaw; teuchit=lapwing; whaup=curlew; meysie=primrose