10 Scots Songs From The Speerit Hoose

1.The Maiden A maiden stude in Embro toun She kissed the necks o mony The High Street wis her favourite staunce An she wis cruel bit bonnie The weemin booed as they wauked by The maiden, staunin stinch. The menfowk doffed their bunnets low Tae venerate the wench At ten feet heich she gart ye pause A steel mou, sherp an bricht Her sides war aik, her jaws war mair Than siventy pun in wecht Twa centuries thon maiden served As Scotland’s guillotine She heidit lairds an commons baith Daith’s skeelie killin queen She heidit fowk for reivin shelts For incest, treason, murder For forgery an sic like ploys Like aipples sliced asunder She killt a rowth o Reekie’s fowk A meenister, a baker A marquis an a belted Earl A housewife an a tailor ‘The sweetest maiden I hae kissed’ Sae Archie Campbell said (The 9th Earl o Argyll, as he Lay doon, as if tae bed) The maiden drapt her gantin mou An ower her briest he bled They say she’s flitted ower the toun Tae Scotland’s Royal Museum Dis she ay thirst for human bluid? I’d sweir she dis, the bizzem, ! 2. Granite This is the wye the toon wis biggit Granite steens for hoose an haa This is the wye the toon wis biggit Tholin the sleet an snaa Doon in the quarry hole they howkit Quarriers aa, quarriers aa Doon in the quarry hole they howkit Tholin the sleet an snaa Blast o explosives birthed the cassies Statues braa, hames an aa Blast o explosives birthed the cassies Tholin the sleet an snaa Noo the days o the quarry’s ower Dwinnlit awa, dwinnlit awa Its granite steens staun hard an glitterin Tholin the sleet an sna 3.The Wyceness o the Wids The wids hae wyceness, learn it weel Fin Winter’s breezes cauldy showd Their branches, aa their treisur’s scaled There are nae pooches in a shroud Letting the little birds of chance Perch on my withered handle Like a Norse ship’s prow. 4.In Praise o a Heilan Ben, Aiberdeenshire Heilans Slidder an scree, the smush o granite Crummlit tae grit bi the Winter’s teeth Clouds abune. See-the erne is sailin! Fit care I fur the boats o Leith! Bummers are heezin ower the heather Wechtit doon bi their rypit prize Pine an fir & the spruce tree fusperin Brawer then Glesga toun’s high-rise Here’s bog-myrtle in boggy boorichs Cotton girse an the tang o thyme Lichen, asphodel, spottit orchis Better than Ayr far the gowfers dine Juniper, larick, birk an rowan Jewelled aidder, a stag at dawn Stampin his forefit, antlers branchin Dundee keelies…can ye match thon? 5.A Prayer for Aiberdeen O Lord, luik doon on Aiberdeen May aa its projecks thrive An tae thon fowk fa wish it ill Gie clap an bellyrive 6.Ownership G’wa craiked the craa, I ain this park His feathers, a warlock’s cape An hobble-dee-cobble-dee ower the girse He pyked at the sheetin brake The gamie held the craa in his sichts Twa barrels gaed bang thegither An aa that left o the bigsy craa Wis puddens an hauf a feather 7.Bawd Lately, ma hairtlans are islands Ma kind are hickled awa in reservations Ringed roon bi hooses an tarmac We fyew remainin breets Coorie thegither an chitter like dried leaves Ae day we’ll be a fitnote in a buik ‘This craitur wis a bawd Speerit o Corn. We didna need it noo Aa men ett couscous, or peels wi jist The richt nutritious additives.’ 8.Granminnie, Lowe, Hair Her hair wis siller, her broo wis mither o pearl Her moo wis blueberries, wi a hint pink An fin she lowsed her hair frae its nest o preens It tummlit doon like a skinnymalinkie linn A saft drappin atween the steady boulders o her showders The tortoiseshell caimb catched a yowedendrift o taigles In its tabby teeth. Her fingers wyled the sheddins in a cloud An offerin tae the lowe’s reid, hungerin flame The siller hottered in Daith’s alchemy Shrivelled blaik an horrid up the lum Like a deevilock birsslin in the stangs o hell Eftir the hair, the prayer The grissly knees creaked doon tae touch the fleer The wrinkled palms, knittit in contemplation ‘Oor Faither, ’ she murmured….wirds like an incantation Doon tae the Amen An the lowe in the hairth brunt normal An bricht again 9.The Speerit Hoose I bigged a speerit-hoose in a neuk At Halloween. In the derk, I wyted Aneth the meen they cam flichterin back The quick an the deid, lang separatist Wi tang o leather an heath, ma faither Wi stank o poother an peint, ma mither Granminnie’s guff wis fusky an mint An Chae, ma brither brocht in bear-scent Like rikk they furled in the darksome hoose Aa thegither, we’d lang bin sundered An I thocht wi a grue o fowk lang gaen The hinney o luv that daith hid plundered 10.The Birk Trees The birk trees cercled Birkenau Witnessin bodies burn an shift Sae mony deid, sae mony lives Furlin as rikk intae the lift Sic bonnie trees, sic eildritch trees Did aa their pouers dwine tae nocht? Blin, deef an dumb tae peety’s wints Gied nae remeid tae sanctuary socht The birk trees cerclin Birkenau May leaf an bark an sap catch blicht Foo can ye thrive, fin anely ghaists O victims, maen in eynless nicht?