Scots poem of the month - September 2005

Lanarkshire your voice is the souch o the wind throu birks your licht is the hard frost at the side o the field your hair is the roost on a covenanter's sword sometimes your heid is thackit wi craws the wind gars them reeshle like fields o bleck wheat the lanimer fair cries me thir merkin stanes is cauld fugged wi moss happit by stoor sooked slowly doon intae the grund they came fae you are a border ghost you flit fae me like words o a ballad i'll no can follae you but like a bowsey butcher on a puggled horse i will ride a lanimer roond your hert © Matthew Fitt from Kate o Shanter's Tale and other poems (Edinburgh: Luath Press, 2003) Poem supplied by the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet Matthew Fitt, born in Dundee in 1968, is currently National Scots Language Development Officer and was the second holder of the Brownsbank Fellowship. He has also been writer-in-residence in Greater Pollok in Glasgow. A poet and novelist, he writes in both scots and English, his most recent publications being the novel But N Ben A-Go Go (Luath 2000), and his poetry collection Kate o Shanter's Tale and other poems (Luath 2003), also available on CD. Matthew is currently Schools Officer for the successful Scots Language imprint, Itchy Coo, of which he is founding editor.

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