When helping friends move (because they are not allowed to stay) A poem by EmmaClaire Brightlyn Love is a many vesselled thing not limited to a muscle encased by a cage of bones and a breast. Love’s mercurial shape can take more states than water, finding home in plates and dishes as well as...
Read MoreThe Honeybee and the Bumblebee, a poem by Gordon Powrie One day a fuzzy Bumblebee Was a-buzzing in the garden When he saw a Honeybee A flower she was guarding, The Bumble said “Honeybee, If you’ll just give me a chance I promise I can take special care Of your flowers and your plants.”...
Read MoreSet the Controls for the Heart of The Club Bar in Paisley, a poem by Graham Fulton Scotland have just beaten Croatia 1-0 in Zagreb when we least expect it, and to add to the amplified wash of unreality the pub is now playing back to back songs by Pink Floyd beginning with ‘Set...
Read MoreThe Deceit by Bobby Motherwell They rise from the scrapes like windblown leaves, a deceit of sixty plus Lapwings. From white to black they flicker in flight. Pages of flip art motion. Escapees against a smothering sky. They mesmerise. Daring me to distraction to Goosander and Widgeon and Great Crested Grebe bobbing nearby. Spiralling...
Read MoreThe Big Fish of Galilee – a poem by Ross McWhinnie Spare a thought for people lost between the lines, unmarked on the Bible page gauged unworthy to make that great geography of names and shames that frame the stories kept. Think a moment on the ferment felt by Lazarus’ undertaker, robbed of his...
Read MoreBoth Ends Against the Middle by Mairi Murphy Mothers knit the streets together: picking up dropped stitches of the careworn darning tears, dispensing gallus compassion, doling out rampant favouritism – cheeky bisoms shouting the odds, one slap fits all. Everyone named, everyone known, doors open, falling out, falling in, swinging lampposts, chalking beds, deliberate...
Read MoreThe Best Shop in Paisley, written by The Oak Tree Writers Club (ages 12+), Aaron McWilliams, Emily Head, Leo Whaley, Murray McGeoch & Sophie Watt. Paisley, full of wonderful shops, But one stands out from all the rest. Some others think they’re better, But this one is the best. I love all of the cakes,...
Read MoreThe Mystery of Ward 18 by Rosalinda Millar The lights were dimmed As sister made her round Drowsy patients safely snuggled down Beyond the window with gentle sighs The whispering wind sang a lullaby. Gently, gently, the door clicked shut Then Sister stiffened – What! Oh Mercy! what is that? A rumbling grumbling thunderous...
Read MoreMammy Roon thi Firepit by Michael Mullen During the days of lockdown I was going through a drought of inspiration. My neighbour was barbecuing for her whole family and it was something so simple yet very powerful. I wanted to create an ode to something as mundane and beautiful as a Mother and her...
Read MoreThis poem by Donna Matthew is inspired by An Oral History of Noise and Piecework in Paisley’s Thread Mills by William Burns. We Just Thought We Were Superhuman Paisley was the mills and the mills were Paisley when childhood was a vast sky of wishes. She walked out of the school gates on...
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