19/09/2014
with shoes I’ve never worn before. I’ll show no signs
of tears or loss or hopelessness. I’ll dance down the street,
head high, nod to every passerby I meet. Be courteous in defeat.
Tonight I’ll grasp the coat-tails of a passing cloud, soar
over Scotland, North to West, East to South, explore
directions not yet known on any map or compass.
I’ll let the wind soothe my wounds, find solace in the rain,
I will not drown in pity. I will contain the pain.
Tonight, I’ll whisper soft as the wings of a moth
to every red-eyed soul I meet. We will be fine.
Tartan blood will not stain our streets. The genie of hope
will not be crammed back in the whisky bottle of despair.
And when the referendum’s called again, we will be there.
*
Magi Gibson’s newest collection, Washing Hugh MacDiarmid’s Socks will be published in April 2017 by Luath. Previous collections include Chapman’s best-selling Wild Women of a Certain Age. Her poems have appeared in Modern Scottish Women Poets (Canongate), Scottish Love Poems (Canongate), The Edinburgh Book of Twentieth Century Scottish Poetry, (EUP), New Writing Scotland (ASLS), Original Prints, (Polygon), and many anthologies and magazines as well as The Scotsman and The Herald. She was former Reader in Residence with Glasgow Women’s Library, she also won the Scotland on Sunday/Women 2000 Poetry Prize. Her poetry has been translated into Spanish, German, Polish and Gaelic.
Walk tall walk straight
with head unbowed
fear none but God
let truth allowed
in lightness and colour our path before us
lights up our lives our world and allows us to dream because because.
Come a ye bonnie lads and lassies
Step it out in bonnie chassis
The braes and lochs have seen the tears
Now time to face what’ll free us
The days gone by are ever near
So stand together with no fear
And share the dream of a Scotland
That lives up to its better ways.