Wild Geese Feeding

The Shore Poets are an Edinburgh institution, and the late poet Mark Ogle was an early member. Following his death in 1999, Ogle’s family chose to commission annually a poet who had read at Shore Poets to respond to one of his poems. Over the past decade, an impressive array of poets – including Kathleen Jamie, Liz Berry, Tom Pow and more – have accepted the challenge. A new pamphlet Watching

Sunlight (Shore Poets) has been published collecting Ogle’s poems and their responses, and although not commercially available, it can be borrowed from the Scottish Poetry Library and Edinburgh’s Central Library.

Wild geese at sunset follow their earthbound shadows, Seeming like sheep or cattle to graze Stooped over their unvarying food forever, Yet able instantaneously all to rise From the green table when the mood Springs them from chains of appetite And they complete a painting of the sky, Slipping low and fast in a ragged arrow Honking through cold currents of air, Over barely touched lands and seas Knowing when and where and how to fly Unerringly beyond the island’s canvas, Beyond the contrivance of the compass, Necks stretched straight for the magnetic pole. You can find a copy of Watching Sunlight: Poems from Twelve Years of the Mark Ogle Memorial Award at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT, www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk