Scottish Poetry Library Podcast

When we think of World War One, our images of the conflict are largely shaped by those of the Western Front or perhaps Gallipoli. It was a truly global conflict, however, and one less remarked upon campaign was that of an ill-fated Anglo-Indian force dispatched to secure oil supplies in what is, today, southern Iraq. 

Poet, playwright and songwriter Jenny Lewis’ father fought as part of that force. Her collection Taking Mesopotamia (Carcanet) re-imagines the campaign using her father’s diaries. It also takes in more recent wars in the region as well as the story of Gilgamesh, the ancient Sumerian warrior king, to create a vision of a mankind that repeatedly fails to learn the lessons of war. Lewis took time out from the StAnza poetry festival, where she was appearing in March 2014,to talk to us about war, oil, myth, and the gods.

Photo by Ben Prestney

The latest edition of our Nothing But The Poem podcast, hosted as usual by Samuel Tongue, features two poems by Juana Adcock.

Samuel Tongue comments: "Juana Adcock is a poet who works between languages and registers and themes, ever inventive and risk-taking. In this all too brief intro to two of her poems, I hope you get a sense of all of these elements. And please come and borrow her books from the SPL."

Liz Lochhead said of her first collection Split: "Here is sharp specificity, humour, daring. These poems rock. They sing."

The two poems discussed in the podcast are The Task of the Translator and The Guitar's Lament.

J.L. Williams is a poet fascinated by the possibility of metamorphosis, whether it be witnessed in the natural world or experienced in one’s own life. Her first collection Condition of Fire (Shearsman) was inspired by Ovid, and in her second collection Locust and Marlin (Shearsman) she returns to the theme of change from a fresh perspective. In this 2014 podcast, she talks to us about the nature of stone, the poetry of locusts, and just how spiritual she is.

Photo by Chris Scott.

On Monday 19th November 2018 the poet Tony Harrison took part in a special event at Edinburgh Filmhouse. It was a rare public appearance from harrison which consisted of a conversation with his friend and collaborator Peter Symes, intercut with screeings of Harrison's film poems. These film poems hadn't been seen in public since they were originally screened on BBC and Channel 4 in the 80s and 90s.

The event was organised by the Scottish Poetry Library in partnership with Edinburgh Filmhouse, and curated by David McLachan. The discussion, including the extracts from the film poems was recorded and the audio has been digitised as part of the SPL's extensive archive. The recording quality wasn't great but thanks to the tech we have at out disposal we've managed to clean up the audio, get rid of most background noises. So here for the first time, in podcast format, is the full discussion between Tony Harrison and Peter Symes, with the film poem extracts left in. Enjoy.

2014 marked the bicentenary of the birth of the Russian novelist and poet Mikhail Lermontov. A book, After Lermontov, featured a number of the Russian’s poems translated into English. Many of the poets involved are Scottish because Lermontov traced his ancestry back to Scotland and was a great admirer of Ossian and Sir Walter Scott. This podcast from 2014 looks at After Lermontov in the company of its editor and contributors: Peter France, Robert Crawford, Sasha Dugdale and Alexander Hutchison. We also take a look at the short, turbulent life of the poet, a controversial figure in his day who may have been the victim of a fatal conspiracy at the age of 27.

Image: lino_Lermontov by Andrey under a Creative Commons licence

In 2014 Niall Campbell was described as one of the most promising poets of the younger generation of Scottish writers. Hailing from the island of South Uist in the Western Isles, Campbell is a poet whose work is as lyrical as it is intriguing. After the publication of his debut collection Moontide (Bloodaxe), Campbell took time to talk to the SPL about growing up on an island, his interest in spirituality without God, and the similarities between sculpture and poetry.

On a sun-kissed Autumn's afternoon on the banks of the River Nith two National Poets sat down to chat about Rabbie Burns, Bob Marley, Dante's Inferno, the Gaelic and Jamaican tongues, and much more besides.

In this special edition of the SPL podcast, Scotland's current Makar, Peter Mackay, and the former Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Lorna Goodison, exchanged poems, stories, thoughts and much laughter at Ellisland Farm, once home to Robert Burns and his family, where he famously composed such works as Auld Lang Syne and Tam o' Shanter.

The conversation took place during the poets' four day residency at the Ellisland Farm Burns Museum: who the Scottish Poetry Library partnered with to help bring the two national poets together for this unique collaboration.

What unfolds in this fascinating and generous conversation is an exploration of seemingly disparate cultures and languages, that may be closer than we at first think. We can also report that Peter Mackay and Lorna Goodison got on like the proverbial house on fire!

Sheena Blackhall is a poet, novelist, short story writer, illustrator, traditional storyteller and singer who is the author, as the podcast explores, of over 100 poetry pamphlets. In 2009, she was made Aberdeen’s City Makar. She writes in English, Scots and Doric. As a child and native speaker of Doric she faced the same prejudices and challenges that speakers of minority languages around the world have faced. In this 2015 podcast, Sheena talks about her love of Aberdeen, the worst place she’s ever written a poem and why she’s written so many pamphlets.

If you would prefer to read, rather than listen to, our podcast with Sheena Blackhall, click here to see a transcript of the interview.

In 2014 presenter Ryan Van Winkle talked with poet Caroline Bird after her reading at The Sutton Gallery in Edinburgh. She discussed her collection The Hat-Stand Union and read a couple of her poems. She also talked about the importance of reading for a poet and how an Arvon course she attended when she was 13 persuaded her to transform her reading habits. It obviously worked as she published her first collection at just 15 years of age.

Produced by Colin Fraser.

In November 2012, we staged the first in a new series of My Life in Poetry events at the Scottish Poetry Library. My Life in Poetry invites guests to reflect upon their lives through the lens of their favourite poems.

Award-winning novelist Candia McWilliam did the SPL the great honour of accepting its invitation to take part. For 30 minutes, she discusses-with enviable lucidity-her favourite poems, which includes verse by Shakespeare, George Herbert, Robert Browning and Emily Dickinson.