I’ve been out taking photos of lines and stanzas from poems I read on the poetry walks, at the places where I read them.
I’ve been posting these on my Facebook and instagram pages, but thought I’d gather a few of them here.
S.T. Coleridge at the Black Bull, Grassmarket
Gavin Douglas at Gladstone’s Land, Lawnmarket. The ‘soir gled’ is the red kite; the surname of the man after whom Gladstone’s Land refers to a ‘gled stane’, or kite’s stone, hence the golden raptor on the building’s front.
Ken Cockburn at Deacon Brodie’s pub, Lawnmarket
Angus Reid at The Scottish parliament building, Holyrood Road
Robert Fergusson at the Palace of Holyroodhouse
RLS at the High Kirk of St Giles, Parliament Square
I’m presenting poetry walks on the Edinburgh Festival Fringe again this year, after doing so in 2016 and 2017.
Burns Monument, Regent Road
As in previous years the walks start and end at the Scottish Poetry Library, off the Canongate near the foot of the Royal Mile. This year’s itinerary includes some sites visited in previous years, including the two nearby graveyards (havens of peace amid the roar of the festival!), while adding new locations, including the Burns Monument on Regent Road. I’ll read some poems I’ve read in previous years, while adding new pieces, including Coleridge’s ecstatic letter to Southey describing his visit in 1803.
Panmure House seen from Dunbar’s Close garden
I’m grateful to Valerie Gillies and James Robertson for their permission to include poems they have written about the city. (You can read Valerie’s ‘To Edinburgh’ here.) As well as the linking script, I’ve written a new poem about the philosopher and economist Adam Smith, who lived in the area for the last 12 years of his life, and is buried in the Canongate Kirkyard. (Panmure House, where he lived, has just been renovated by Heriot-Watt University.)
Stevenson, from The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886)
This year’s walk has the title Reading the Streets, and has as its focus some of the contrasts Edinburgh keeps throwing up. The Old Town / New Town divide is the most obvious and present one, and we’ll cross from one to the other. But there are many others, including at this time of year City / Festival, Residents / Visitors and Local / International. The poems are written in two languages, English / Scots, and since I include some extracts from diaries and letters there’s a Poetry / Prose contrast too.
Palace and Paliament against Arthur’s Seat
The new cheek-by-jowl neighbours Palace / Parliament form a contemporary divide, though they’re on the same side in the Historic Time / Geological Time contrast as they look out onto Arthur’s Seat and Salisbury Crags.
Stevenson family vault in the New Calton Burial Ground, Edinburgh
I’m also grateful to the Scottish Poetry Library for including the walks in its Fringe programme. They run from Saturday 4 – Monday 27 August, daily (not Thursdays, Fridays) starting at 11.00, and lasting 90 minutes.
Poems on the page and in the world 