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
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