Poem
Harry Josephine Giles
Vouels
Vouels
Vouels
aa yird, ey pa, ii chaak, oa gress, eu sea: thee soond,no a chantan o atoms but a sang o shaeds:
aa, braad broun, lippered ower the wey an the grund
as deid haither an sharn, ploud field an soldier heid,
the iper an the muild whaar ony shaed mey thrive;
ey, primula scotica, here kent an huntid
een tae feet an spied an celebratid, coontid;
ii, ower white, shell white, wind white, egg white, aff white,
high-holy clood an grottie buckie, currency
an common weal; oa, will-willan yowe gaen mossy,
but nivver a tree? ach, stoup thee nivver a tree;
eu, me hamelt first an uncan last, aald aa roun,
stourie tide, in yin airt, an yin, aff tae Bergen
an ferivver, an aye me ee. Muscle o ee.
Yird: earth. Pa: purple fabric. Thee: your. Chantan: affected speech. Lippered: spilt.
Sharn: dung. Soldier: a weed (ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata). Iper: foul ooze.
Muild: soil. Kent: known. Een: eyes. Grottie buckie: a shell (cowrie, Cypraea europaea).
Weal: wealth, wellbeing. Will-willan: straying in the mind. Yowe: ewe. Stoup: shut up.
Hamelt: homely (or, only as tabu name, wife). Uncan: strange. Stourie: dusty, stormy.
Tide: tide, sea, time. Yin: that. Airt: direction. Aye: always.
© 2018, Harry Josephine Giles
From: The Games
Publisher: Out-Spoken,
First published in minnmouth (Alec Finlay, 2017)
From: The Games
Publisher: Out-Spoken,
Harry Josephine Giles
(United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 1986)
The work of Harry Josephine Giles is characterised by a serious approach to play and a radical engagement with politics, and generally occurs, in their words, “in the crunchy places where performance and politics get muddled up”. They have won and been shortlisted for a number of awards, making the shortlist of the Forward Prize for Best First Collection with Tonguit in 2016, and that of the 20...
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Poems of Harry Josephine Giles
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Vouels
aa yird, ey pa, ii chaak, oa gress, eu sea: thee soond,no a chantan o atoms but a sang o shaeds:
aa, braad broun, lippered ower the wey an the grund
as deid haither an sharn, ploud field an soldier heid,
the iper an the muild whaar ony shaed mey thrive;
ey, primula scotica, here kent an huntid
een tae feet an spied an celebratid, coontid;
ii, ower white, shell white, wind white, egg white, aff white,
high-holy clood an grottie buckie, currency
an common weal; oa, will-willan yowe gaen mossy,
but nivver a tree? ach, stoup thee nivver a tree;
eu, me hamelt first an uncan last, aald aa roun,
stourie tide, in yin airt, an yin, aff tae Bergen
an ferivver, an aye me ee. Muscle o ee.
Yird: earth. Pa: purple fabric. Thee: your. Chantan: affected speech. Lippered: spilt.
Sharn: dung. Soldier: a weed (ribwort plantain, Plantago lanceolata). Iper: foul ooze.
Muild: soil. Kent: known. Een: eyes. Grottie buckie: a shell (cowrie, Cypraea europaea).
Weal: wealth, wellbeing. Will-willan: straying in the mind. Yowe: ewe. Stoup: shut up.
Hamelt: homely (or, only as tabu name, wife). Uncan: strange. Stourie: dusty, stormy.
Tide: tide, sea, time. Yin: that. Airt: direction. Aye: always.
From: The Games
First published in minnmouth (Alec Finlay, 2017)
Vouels
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