THE Pleasures of Hope was 2012's given theme for the annual McCash Scots Poetry Competition (run jointly by The Herald and Glasgow University).
Pippa Little won joint first prize with this response; shivereens means fragments. The best poems from 2003 to 2012 are collected in The Smeddum Test (Kennedy and Boyd).
SHIVEREENS
Sma' coal a-smoulder
in the hearth, soft selkie-gray,
to kiss the sting of bone-cauld hands away
for aye the morning's white as milk
evening's haar will drain the day,
parliaments and banks all gan aglay
for want of sharing fairly:
so look sma' to keep hope brave -
it's black tea, tobacco in a battered tin,
a button's buttonhole against the wind
that keeps love safe:
sma' things make sense of us this way,
the spoon between your teeth, the first hot gulp;
something that will stay
the whole long trauchle through,
that one sweet snap, quick over, of our lives;
things for which we grieve,
things we give away.
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