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John Greening

@greeningpoet.bsky.social

British poet (The Interpretation of Owls: Poems 1977-2022 ed. Gardner, Baylor UP). Also editor of anthologies & editions of Blunden, Grigson, Crichton Smith, a new selected UA Fanthorpe & a forthcoming Matthew Arnold. Not forgetting a Rilke 'New Poems'

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John Greening@greeningpoet.bsky.social · last mo.

It was an honour to be asked some years ago to edit a new selection of Iain Crichton Smith, one of Scotland's best and best known makars. Also one of the most readable of poets. He was a successful novelist too, so he knows how to entertain. Do try him if you don't know him @carcanet.bsky.social

Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · last mo.

He will outlast us, churning out his books, advocate and historian, his prose earning him Abbotsford with its borrowed gates, its cheap mementos from the land he made… —Iain Crichton Smith, “At the Scott Exhibition, Edinburgh Festival” DEER ON THE HIGH HILLS, @carcanet.bsky.social 2021 #BookWormSat

AT THE SCOTT EXHIBITION, EDINBURGH FESTIVAL Iain Crichton Smith He will outlast us, churning out his books, advocate and historian, his prose earning him Abbotsford with its borrowed gates, its cheap mementos from the land he made. Walking the room together in this merciless galaxy of manuscripts and notes I am exhausted by such energy. I hold your hand for guidance. Over your brow the green light falls from tall and narrow windows. His style is ignorant of this tenderness, the vulnerable angle of your body below the Raeburn with its steady gaze. It was all in his life, not in his books ‘Oh I am dying, take me home to Scotland where I can breathe though that breath were my last.’ He limped through an Edinburgh being made anew. He worked his way through debts, past a dead wife. My dear, we love each other in our weakness as he with white grave face diminishing through stroke after stroke down to the unpaid room. We know what we are but know not what we will be. I tremble in this factory of books. What love he must have lost to write so much.
Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · 11mo ago

“I was drawn, surely, to the unusual combination of spiritual reach and humour, as well as recognising the poet’s extraordinary gift for characterisation in miniature” — @greeningpoet.bsky.social on discovering George Mackay Brown #poetrysky wildcourt.co.uk/discovering-...

Discovering George Mackay Brown – Wild Court

wildcourt.co.uk

Association for Scottish Literature@asls.org.uk · 11mo ago

My father passed with his penny letters Through closes opening and shutting like legends When barbarous with gulls Hamnavoe’s morning broke… —“Hamnavoe”, by George Mackay Brown (1921–1996) – born #OTD, 17 Oct “I have never seen his poetry sufficiently praised.” —Seamus Heaney A 🎂 🧵 #poetrysky 1/8

Hamnavoe George Mackay Brown My father passed with his penny letters Through closes opening and shutting like legends When barbarous with gulls Hamnavoe's morning broke On the salt and tar steps. Herring boats, Puffing red sails, the tillers Of cold horizons, leaned Down the gull-gaunt tide And threw dark nets on sudden silver harvests. A stallion at the sweet fountain Dredged water, and touched Fire from steel-kissed cobbles. Hard on noon four bearded merchants Past the pipe-spitting pier-head strolled, Holy with greed, chanting Their slow grave jargon. A tinker keened like a tartan gull At cuithe-hung doors. A crofter lass Trudged through the lavish dung In a dream of corn-stalks and milk. In the Arctic Whaler three blue elbows fell, Regular as waves, from beards spumy with porter, Till the amber day ebbed out To its black dregs.
John Greening@greeningpoet.bsky.social · 12mo ago

A taster of my forthcoming #Rilke, appearing from Baylor UP next month. This is courtesy of David Cameron at 'Into Poetry' who provides a commentary. One of the best known Neue Gedichte @bayloruniversity.bsky.social intocreative.co.uk/john-greenin...

The Carousel (Rilke) by John Greening

The Carousel Jardin du Luxembourg A roof, a shadow, round and round it spinsfor a little while, this brightly coloured bandof horses from a hesitating landthat’s going, gone. Some do have more than re...

intocreative.co.uk