AFTER yesterday's announcement of the annual McCash Scots Poetry Competition, here are two short poems by Hugh MacDiarmid.
In the first, with a few imaginative lines, he conjures a whole celestial world, with the Earth as its epicentre. The second is affectionately intimate. Both can be found in Hugh MacDiarmid: Selected Poetry (Fyfield Books, £9.95).
THE BONNIE BROUKIT BAIRN
(for Peggy)
Mars is braw in crammasy,
Venus in a green silk goun,
The auld mune shak's her gowden feathers,
Their starry talk's a wheen o' blethers,
Nane for thee a thochtie sparin'
Earth, thou bonnie broukit bairn!
But greet, an' in your tears ye'll droun
The hail clanjamfrie!
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