Scotland Street Press will be publishing a collection of poems from Alan Spence from his time as Edinburgh Makar. Enjoy these two poems from the collection, and then get yourself the whole book – it’s a marvellous celebration of the city.

Edinburgh Come All Ye
By Alan Spence
Published by Scotland Street Press

EDINBURGH COME ALL YE

From the Mediterranean to the Baltic,
from the Caspian Sea to the Atlantic,
folk have foregathered here in Edinburgh
on this bright autumn day they’ve come together.
In a world turned tapsalteerie, upside down
they’ve come from a the airts to this old town.
Let’s sing a great Come All Ye, let it ring,
a song of peace and oneness, gathering
in strength from everyone who gives it voice,
sung clear and pure and from the heart. Rejoice
to hear it rise and swell, anthemic, free.
Our oneness is our true humanity –
this city every city, this nation
the world. Beyond all separation,
division, sing einheit, l’unita
unidad, aonachd jednosc, jednota…
and every other way of saying it.
Oneness. Come All Ye. Celebrate. Sing it.

THE OLD TOWN

In a poem, in a dream, I turn and find myself
walking through the Old Town. Is it Edinburgh?
Krakow? In the poem, in the dream, it’s both,
somehow, it’s both at the same time.

I walk on down the Canongate to Market Square.
It’s Festival time, there’s jazz in the streets, poetry
in the air. I turn and find myself in a poem
in a dream. Where? Here in this bright room.

Stevenson and Conrad trade stories, tell their tales,
travellers come home at last to this place.
Milosz and MacCaig flyte, take flight, a zen calvinist,
a catholic atheist – their ideas fizz and flare.

Language is the only homeland, says Milosz.
MacCaig responds, My only country is six foot high…
Beyond the poem, the dream, the world
is turning mad, hellbent on self-destruct.

So praise them, these sister-cities of literature,
as one, Edinburgh-Krakow, Krakow-Edinburgh,
as one, holding to the dream, the poem,
to language, our homeland, our hope.

Edinburgh Come All Ye by Alan Spence is published by Scotland Street Press, priced