Tags
Ben Okri, Blood on the Tracks, Bob Dylan, Dunkeld, Edinburgh Book Festival, George Mackay Brown, Kenneth Steven, Pitlochry, Robert Burns, Snakeskin
My poem, “Soon to Be Sixty”, has been published in this month’s Snakeskin.
Here is the song version, followed by a recording:
Soon to Be Sixty
I discover a favourite writer
with every new decade that turns.
At ten I would gladly recite a
“Some hae meat…” by the bard, Rabbie Burns.
“Some hae meat…” by Rabbie Burns.
At twenty Bob Dylan disarmed me
with “Tangled Up in Blue”.
“Simple Twist of Fate” really charmed me.
“You’re a Big Girl Now” turned the screw.
“Tangled Up in Blue”.
At thirty I chanced on a master,
an Orcadian, George Mackay Brown.
He mingled success with disaster.
He knew that the king was a clown.
George Mackay Brown.
At forty I heard Kenneth Steven
bring a Christmas Day in at Dunkeld
with a story he seemed to believe in
of a baby that he almost held.
Kenneth Steven at Dunkeld.
At fifty I witnessed Ben Okri
in Edinburgh at the Book Fair.
Perhaps he’ll be on at Pitlochry
one of these days while I’m there.
Ben Okri at the Fair.
I’m due to hit sixty next summer.
Whose talent will thicken the plot?
A poet, a singer, a strummer?
I love all of these guys such a lot.
I love all of these guys a lot.
I love all of these guys a lot.