Saturday, May 07, 2011

Potato and Podcast

The Workshop Exercise is ‘Write about a Potato’


When I think about a potato
I don’t think about mountains
capped in cloud or lochs
like clasps that hold the sun
or birds scratching the surface
of the sea’s dark eye
somewhere near Mull,
land where I have never
grown potatoes.

A potato is not what comes to my mind
when I think of my love,
or the laughter of my kids
as they run into the distance
in a dizzy dream of light,
and that tall glass of beer
I am working towards
with all this creative fervour
is nothing like a potato.

I don’t want to get personal,
but to me the poet organizing this
looks more and more like a potato,
but there’s no poem there,
so in the febrile landscape of life,
its agonies, its bliss
and hopeless cruelties,
we must carry on rooting,
among the potatoes.




Productive wee time. Creative Scotland were nice enough to give me a writers bursary which will enable me to finish off New and Selected, which is due in March 2012.

Anyone wanting to listen to me talking in a cupboard with Ryan Van Winkle in the latest Scottish Poetry Library podcast should link here:

Shug.

7 comments:

hope said...

Only you could make not writing about a potato interesting. :)

I loved the podcast segment! And although it may seem odd to you, every time I read your blog I "hear" you speaking...and it's a very pleasant sound.

Your pamphlets are so beautiful it almost makes me want to collect all my silly "55 word stories" and turn them into one.

Standing ovation, my friend!

Marion McCready said...

Congrats on the bursary, looking forward to the new and selected! Good form on the podcast too!!

Wigeon said...

Love the tattie poem Shug!
Great news on the CS writer's bursary. Many congratulations and I look forward to the new book coming out.

Rachel Fox said...

Makes me wonder who the tattie-tutor was...
Saw your double in Taos, New Mexico this week. He was wearing super tight jeans and cowboy boots! Can you imagine...

Titus said...

Smokin', You McMillan!

McGuire said...

Just pealed and now boiling some potatos as I type.

Enjoyed the podcast as well. Yir a good sort Hugh. Wry poems, sardonic, sneaky, mischievous, wee bit melancholy.

Good to speak/slur to you at the Forest.

Till the next time.

Keep on pealing back reality with the words.

;)

pilgrimchick said...

That's quite a subject. Nice poem.