This is the website of Edinburgh-based poet and translator Ken Cockburn.

Latest News (September 2026)

I got good feedback from August’s poetry walks (part of the Edinburgh Fringe 2026), including a review (with some great photos) from Jonathan Mandell for New York Theatre.

After the Fringe I led a poetry walk in Stonehaven, as part of the Wee Gaitherin festival, for a group from Mackie Academy. It was good to visit the town again, and to pair places and poems.

Submissions for the next issue (#86) of Presence Haiku Journal are open till 30th September. More details on the Presence website here.

The most recent issue of painted, spoken (#46) is a tribute to Peter McCarey, who turned 70 this month. I was pleased to share some memories of my encounters with Peter and his work, in prose and two short poems.

My short poem Duomo was selected by online magazine Ink Sweat & Tears as part of their ‘Wonder’ feature, picking up on this year’s theme for National Poetry Day 1st October.

“… repeatedly in Cockburn’s poetry you get the impression of a poet who has sown nothing but good will in his craft and is slowly reaping this in his work.”
Richie McCaffrey, on Floating the Woods

“Every so often I come across a book of poems that is irresistible for the absolute ‘rightness’ of its project; a book that has that unerring quality of integrity, craft and communication with the reader; a book that’s doing something slightly out of the ordinary, but wearing that difference in an unostentatious manner. This was that book for me. A delight.” Andy Brown, on The Road North

“From the outset, I find the poems, their ingredients and flavour, and your meticulous joy with words, a delight.”
Stewart Conn, on On the flyleaf

“It is refreshing to read contemporary poetry of such rare grace and compassion… a welcome contribution to the literature of our nomadic century.” Tom Hubbard, on Souvenirs and Homelands