Beldina onstage at the SAY Awards Dear Beldina, I resisted doing this for years because I didn’t know how to start, to be honest. I can’t believe it was November 5th, 2021 when we lost you. Typing these words even now, it’s still almost impossible to process this fact. I think about you often, andContinue reading “Dear Beldina”
Tag Archives: Poetry
Weeping Willow
The weeping willow spreads out its tendrils like fingers Quietly enduring, inhales wind, exhales air as bellows Dominating this landscape, a reminder That not all is corrupted.
Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why
British Ethiopian poet and performer Lemn Sissay writes prose in the same way that he speaks: succinctly, openly and with no time for bullshit. It’s this no -nonsense approach that he brings to his devastating memoir, My Name Is Why. For the first twelve years of his life, he had lived with a Christian familyContinue reading “Book Review: Lemn Sissay- My Name Is Why”
The Arts Are Not A Luxury
I grew up in a small working- class rural town in Perthshire, Scotland. Nothing much happened there; we didn’t have much money and TV was our only dose of culture. In my house, books were shoved into cupboards, hidden away like skeletons, and theatre, with the exception of am- dram panto, wasn’t “for the likesContinue reading “The Arts Are Not A Luxury”
Happy 2024!
Happy New year to you, wherever you are reading this. May this year bring peace,joy and fulfilment to all, however and whenever it occurs. Lorna x “How happy is the vestal’s lot! The world forgetting, by the world forgot, Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d…” -Alexander Pope, ‘Eloisa toContinue reading “Happy 2024!”
Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: I Don’t Get Antony Szmierek
Hipster haircut- check. Banal rhymes- check Disaffected swagger-check. Now it’s time to release Antony Szmierek into the wild. Fly, Antony, fly, carried by the winds of fashion and massive hyperbole. Seriously, why do people love him so much? People are losing their shit over this posher Streets – Avenues maybe would have been a betterContinue reading “Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: I Don’t Get Antony Szmierek”
“God Bless You, Mr Cutler! “
Take Scottish institution The Broons, put something in their tea, and you’re halfway to understanding the genius of Ivor Cutler. I’m a wee bit late to the table here, but January the 15th marked what would have been the great Ivor Cutler ‘s 100th birthday. Born into a Scots Jewish family, his dour, sweetly subversiveContinue reading ““God Bless You, Mr Cutler! “”
I Blame Robert Smith…
At fourteen, I was a bona fide Goth. Black of eyeliner, crimped of hair, and with a tendency towards a shyness and melancholy. Small-town life in rural Perthshire just wasn’t cutting it for me. I wanted to see bands, dance and theatre, but there was nothing within the vicinity and we were a working classContinue reading “I Blame Robert Smith…”
Spock’s Hubris
Say what you like about ol’ William Shatner, he never attempted a book of appalling poetry. Unlike Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy. Perhaps such artistic hubris was due to the fact that said actor shared his first name with Laughing Len Cohen, but let us not ask why. How bad is it? It’s pissed JimContinue reading “Spock’s Hubris”
Hit The North 