The Scottish Poetry League
The World Cup collective poetry project announced by the SPL [Scotland World Cup Poem: send in your lines – Scottish Poetry Library ] made us think about what poets would match with what players and managers. Here is the definitive list.
John McGinn – Ivor Cutler
Archie Gemmill – Percy Bysshe Shelley
Joe Jordan – Tom Leonard
John Robertson – Roddy Lumsden
Lyndon Dykes – Julia Donaldson
Rose Reilly – Liz Lochhead
Jock Stein – Hugh Macdiarmid
Leigh Griffiths – Charles Bukowski
Willie Johnston – Sylvia Plath
Danny McGrain – Norman MacCaig
Kieran Tierney – Edwin Morgan
Kenny Dalglish – Pablo Neruda
Kenny McLean – William McIllvaney
Pat Nevin – Sorley MacLean
Chic Charnley – Byron
Julie Fleeting – Kathleen Jamie
Richard Gough – Allen Ginsberg
David Narey – Kevin P. Gilday
Alan Hansen – John Cooper Clarke
James McFadden – Seamus Heaney
Ralph Milne – James Joyce
Charlie Nicholas – Robert Burns
Dennis Law – Ian Hamilton Finlay
Alan Rough – William McGonagal
Three Jags players! Cannot be bad.
However, Roughie and McGonnagall – really????
McGonnagall is underrated
What have you got against Julia Donaldson?
I think she has created some memorable characters
True, Julia Donaldson captured the essential relationship between Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein to an uncanny degree in The Snail and the Whale.
The Scotland national teams’ performances at the World Cup, men and women seniors both, do seem to rhyme. But this is another weak attempt to make poetry relevant to a sporting event of national significance. Where are the SWNT playing their second (and last qualifying) game against Israel?
Billy Bremner Dylan Thomas
I like this!