The Gift of Giving A poem by Terry McTernan It starts with time, a smile, a deed, A moment spent to meet a need. No fame, no fuss, no grand display, Just hearts that choose to give each day. A hand to hold, a task made light, A friendly chat that feels just right....
Read MoreScotsmosis A poem by Susan Gazzola Black Susan is an American from New York who has been living in Paisley for 14 years. Scotsmosis sums up her adventure of how she met her husband and moved to her new homeland. I am a New Yorker by birth And I’ve traveled a lot on this...
Read MoreWhen 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 Heron of the Hammils A poem about loss and redemption written 11 years ago by local tree surgeon David Treanor Moving through the twilight the heron hunts alone one foot in land, one water his kindred birds have flown. Disturbed he loses stillness mood misunderstood awkwardly appearing to fail his precious brood. Peace...
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 Flu Shot Sma’ Shot by Shaun Moore, poet laureate for Renfrewshire Near a hundred and seventy years gone by, how can it be relevant still? Gone are the weavers, the corks and the looms, gone are the very mills. As are the coalmines that fired them, the steelworks that built them, and the ships...
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...
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