STEWART Conn, Edinburgh's first Makar and one of Scotland's most distinguished present-day poets, has a major volume, The Touch of Time:
New and Selected Poems, due to published later this month (Bloodaxe Books, £12). Here, as a little foretaste, is one of the new pieces in his collection. The canine joie de vivre is a cheery image for a Monday morning!
OFF THE LEASH
Three dogs come bounding down Porty prom,
twisting and cavorting as they leap the barrier
and go splashing along the dowdy tide-line,
their balletic exertions suspended in air. One
especially, a black and white collie, shows such
superabundance of spirit I am rooted to the spot
as it comes loping and pirouetting towards me,
radiating catherine-wheels of spray. Only as they
go tumbling and somersaulting past do I take in
that the collie, whose explosiveness and defiance
of gravity so caught my eye, has one foreleg
missing, which if anything appears to enhance
its exuberance as it heads, twisting and loping
(not to forget, of course, cavorting and bounding)
back up the prom, the way it came, the least trace
of deformity banished by its spirit and grace.
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 hereComments are closed on this article