Long Bairns Poems

The Spirits of Culloden. 
This is like a pilgrimage, a try tae come every year,
Gather at the cairn, meet old friends, wipe away a tear.
Standin on that moor, that once with blood was sodden,
Paying respects...

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BROKEN DOWN ANGELS

It disny seem that long ago
Toddling and having fun,
Crawling then walking along the floor 
And learning how tae run.

Potty trained and full eh life
They’d run you af yer feet,
A kiss on the cheek...

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Oi be nowt but an auld country hick,
we a liddle bit of gall, an a lotta stick.
Oi baint niver afeared to speak me mind,
nor critizise folks harshly iffen Oi find
zummit I don’t loik.  Tis...

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THE WALK
The sun shines on Benarty
On a nice warm summers day,
The bairns have got their clothes on
And they all want out to play.

l make them all some breakfast
And the kids all eat their fill,
Then I...

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SAMHUINN
Wi samhuin fast approaching
When people start tae dread,
The gates of hell burst open
For the festival of the dead.

Bane shanks lifts his scythe
And scrieves his words in fire,
Welcome tae this earthly plane
Or be cast upon the...

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TWA HAIRY DUGS

Twa hairy dugs
 Walking doon the street,
Raking in the buckets
Tae find a bite tae eat.

Licking oot a puddle
Tae git a nice cool drink,
Survival on the streets alone
They really have tae think.

Sleeping on a...

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III.

Scott bought the farm and some dairy cows,
and set about building himself up.
He soon made a name for quality milk,
local wholesalers could not get enough!

One summer day he took to the plow,
preparing and old field...

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The Elephant Gift.
upon the elephant rode a boy prince,
his royal command, he was there to evince. 
dark with grace and dripping with youth.
bringing his men, his crown and his couth. 
town after town he strode...

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My Mother
Mary Ann Dow Gardiner

Mary Ann Dow Stuart wis her maiden name,
Noo, she wisnae a Scoatish Lass o' fame.
Born in nineteen hunner an' five on the fifth o' May.
gorgeous she wis' at oany time o'...

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I.
Amity Bairns came home late one fall day,
Clothes in tatters, face white with shock.
Her mother cried and ran from the cabin,
Brother Amos jumped up from where he rocked.

In the lands west of old Fort plain,
in...

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I love your heathered highlands,
steep cliffs and rugged islands,
hedges and gardens under
rainclouds of grey.
Old steeples rise above
those small rural towns I love;
your hillsides of sunny yellow,
rolled bales of hay.

	Pipers will play their part
	stirring each Scottish...

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II.

Days passed slowly, Amos didn’t return,
Mary Bairns now had to reasons to weep.
Her son was gone, there could be no mistake,
and her daughter, half-mad, didn’t sleep.

She packed up their things and traveled east
to just outside...

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It were bonfire night in 1910,
when fireworks first lit the night,
streets that were dark in shadows,
now suddenly fulsome and bright.

Bairns scattered as the bangs blew o’er us,
we giggled and ran for our lives,
and clutched as...

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They practise their guns on the land of the innocence, 
these loathsome creatures wipe out the lines of our army,
now we are what left to secure this homeland, 
"Come forth my soldiers" the cry of...

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Life in Deep Space (Air Added)

True freedom can feel like an exquisite jail,
our colonized space bound by bars that we love.
Childs’ nutrition once favored, a lap dance now passé,
our restaurants change with new owners (when...

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A luv ma life sae full o' joy,
I keep ma interests at full employ.
Each day fur me is sic' delight,
every day, aw' day an' ivery night.

I go tae bed an' lay doon ma heid,
aye richt...

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Kindheartedness

Ellen had a lot of experience in washing nappies, six bairns in less than eight years. William 
Chapman had a lot to answer for. Everyone knew, or thought they knew, what poor Ellen had 
to...

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Heathen warriors dressed in the plaid
Victims of time and an evil brigade
Pursue their beliefs far into the South
Gaelic words from a Jacobite mouth

Like bairns against many a gun
The highlanders decided to run
Not for home and...

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Bagpipes in short high sounding squeals 
 that loudly play to the ears appeal
 some haunting distant melodic foreboding malaise,
stretching across an isle of green-blue ways,
 freed open and gingerly
 along the lochs and rivers...

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A blister in the heart

Like walking blindfolded into a minefield 
You skirmish and elbow your diligent way
Like a house of cards that collapses
You endure anguish and stitch

If some would erect walls 
When the wind of...

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Barefoot hunter stands on sand
A young man leaves a troubled land
On sand and water travels wide
Searching for that peace inside
And as he looks around the world 
He learns to know the cost
Of women loved and...

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I will tell a funny story of a bear that's hunkydory
How 'e lives a life of comfort in a pickle on a tree
When the summer comes 'e fishes, an' 'e eats 'em off o' dishes
Till...

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Tik tok goes the clock
With each set of time
Her energetic vibrant being
turns frail
She who i'll never call by her name

In retrospect,she raged
Against this decadent diabolical world
She raged to give her bairns the best  of...

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So here I am again
Waiting on a deadly train
Facing raw elements freezing rain 
Storming in heart and brain 
I want time to go away
And blackness to soothe
I wish I could hit replay
And erase the memory...

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Layla's face is a map of Ireland grandma McCormick says
or Scotland Shawn McDougall adds hopefully
Look at those freckles, they are irish insists Brigid
You can tell the difference between irish and Scottish freckles?

Layla’s groom does not...

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