Wednesday 23 July 2008

Hold Hands Among the Atoms - Edwin Morgan

Edwin Morgan is for me without doubt the greatest Scottish poet. His work is consistently vivid and verbally inventive. His issue based work is powerful and moving, his love poetry tender. This is a book of poetry Morgan wrote to celebrate his 70th birthday in 1990. The poems cover a variety of issues including nature and the environment in poems such as A Fuchsia, A Waterhorse and A Defence, which is an endearing portrait of the magpie:


a batch of tumbling clockwork liquorice allsorts,
spruce, spliced, diced, learning to prance and hurtle
through evening and morning sycamores with what must be
something like happiness


My favourite poem in the collection is An Abandoned Culvert:


The daffodils sang shrill within the culvert.
Their almost acid notes amazed the darkness
culverts are happiest with.

For anyone who admires inventive poetry that fully engages with life, Edwin Morgan has to be on their reading list.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like what you've posted here. Thanks for the tip.

Anonymous said...

I will leave it to a native to make the best Scottish poet judgement, but Morgan's place amongst the best poets of the 20th century is beyond dispute. One of my all-time favourites.

Janice Thomson said...

I liked most of his work too from what I could find on the internet. His imagery is fantastic in those that I read. Thanks for the links too.

Twilark said...

A lovely tribute