Tom Pow recently spent six months as writer in residence at the National Library of Scotland's map library in Edinburgh, and was inspired to write a series of poems, including one to "The prince of cartographers,"John George Bartholomew (1860-1920).
Among the longer material in the book is this charming snippet. (Concerning the Atlas of Scotland and Other Poems is published by Polygon at £12.99 paperback).
ORCHARD
An old map shows that,
where our terraced house
now stands, there was once
an orchard; neat rows
of prim pen and ink trees.
What fruit grew there
it doesn't say, but
on warm summer nights,
I hear ghost apples
pock the dry earth.
I smell the sweetness
of pears after rain.
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