back to edinburgh

back to edinburgh today to read at the scottish poetry library. as ever with this place it gets even better the longer the absence. they have more books, they have more spoken word and the ivor cutler exhibit is a treat. and that's before the journal section.

i bring along poems suggested by the rain. so the rain stops, the sun shines and we all sit outside. i may have to do this more often! there's only about seven of us but for me, it was a lovely vibe, i liked what was read and felt quite ennervated by the whole affair.

then i bought a stack of books. standouts so far are magi gibson's wild women of a certain age which i was glued to over coffee and colin mckay's cold night lullaby, a collection of searing poems about the conflict in bosnia. i sat and read all of this when i got back tonight. it's like being reminded of what poetry can be for. such a shame when i googled him to find out he had died. of the pair of them, more later.

then off to see a man about another collaborative project. can;t say more about this for a while but all very interesting and may end up doing some things i'd never considered before.

and still time enough to get into the russian-scottish place to see the gennadii gogoliuk i missed last time round. definitely worth the detour