Featured Guest Poet John Houston
Autumn On Oban Bay
As tin can fishing boats
Rise 'n' faw
They dance 'n' bob
Tae the moons ebb 'n' flow
The silver tipped watter
Glitters bright black
Like a blanket a cauld
Protecting the dark
As the Lorn loom, relentless
Crawls ever on
Like a carpet 'a' grey
On a Ocean 'a' stone
Auld Neptune
Admires the Isles
A view truly inspired
Aff the stron 'a' Argyll
As the lang summer en's
Lea the drech back-en
On yer neb, ye kin fin
The winter lift darken
And the lap 'a' the wash
On yer soul
A reminder 'a' folk
N' places of old.
January, 2001
John Houston's Questions:
This being my first post I thought I would introduce myself with something that I have written recently. I hail from a small fishing village on the west coast of Scotland (Oban) which I only moved to a few months ago from Glasgow. Oban is a beautiful place and is known as the gateway to the Isles (western Isles).
My first question is very straight forward.
I tried to convey an impression of Oban and what it is like standing on the pier looking out to sea on a misty autumn evening...did I succeed and do you have any suggestions how to improve my imagery?
Secondly I write most of my stuff in my native dialect (Glaswegin) and I would like to know how you found it (admittedly this one is not to bad).
Thank you all for listening and any other advise you could give would be much appreciated.
A Happy New Year to one and aw.
Dear John, the main difficulty I have
is to get into your poem.
The language and spelling you use are in my way.
Now, I understand that your poem
may have a different audience
and may work really well for someone
well familar with the dialect you use.
So, I hesitate to say it's a problem
about your poem, maybe it's simply
my problem.
One thing you might try to do would be
to rewrite the poem using more standard
spelling.
Then you can build in the elements of
the dilect you use as, perhaps,
a dialog (or something like this).
All the best on your path. Stefan
USA - Fri Feb 9 12:59:18 2001
Dear John, I think I have the same difficulty as Stefan's with your poem. I like the tune, but I do not understand the lyrics-- not completely. I heve glimpses of what you see; I like the sounds you insert in the poem, but can't offer specific help for thew reason stated above. You might write it in straight English; I mean, two versions, one for who understand Glasgowan and one for all readers. Thank you. Paula
Paula Grenside
Italy - Sun Feb 18 06:54:51 2001