Lynn Valentine’s poems touch the heart of what’s often overlooked on sitting at the periphery. With hints of fairytale and gothic interwoven through her work, Lynn Valentine’s poems are alive. You can read three from her collection below.

Poems taken from Life’s Stink & Honey
By Lynn Valentine
Published by Cinnamon Press

Gloamin

And you look out the window
and look   really look
the mountains low
still snowed    hunkered
into winter still

the sky high
the everlasting orange and blue

And you think
this is why

This   This

In a Glasgow library, 1987

They borrow six Mills and Boons at a time,
maximum limit, hover at the door,
wait while I’m classifying new arrivals.
How many books does it take to chip
away the grey of the council estate?

I stick a small rose on the spines
to be filed under Romance,
no symbol for sex so the Harlequins
nuzzle suggestively next
to tales of love and heroines.

The Zane Greys and the like
are filed with the sign of a gun.
I’d prefer a horse if I’m honest,
likewise with daggers for crime,
a swap for the O of a magnifying glass.

This estate is commonplace
for knives, the odd gun, the odd death,
hardmen, violence, the government sucking it dry.
I’m grateful to those who order new roses,
happy for those who travel with horses.

A Loast Freen

Thi sma snaw o the lambs is later than iver this year,
thi Mey’s near oot, daffies are droonin in rattlestanes.
Thi spuggies hae bairns—cauld bairns.
A’ve taen tae pokin the dugs moltins intae trees
tae waarm the nests, am waatchin oot fir foggie bummers tae.

An a wunner whaur ye are noo—ir ye facin thi blast
o winter still—sleekit winds startin low then takin ower
thi hail lenth o sky. Ir is it sweet whaur yi are,
a strawberry sun lichtin yir path?  Is thir still time to mak
oor peace, tak a jig thegither, haud ane anither in sma snaw?

Life’s Stink & Honey by Lynn Valentine is published by Cinnamon Press, priced £9.99.