Read Raw Ltd - Promoting Creative Writing in Scotland

Read Raw Ltd

Promoting Creative Writing in Scotland

Poet of the Month

Aidan McEoin

Aidan Mc Eoin, is a poet, originally from Co. Clare southwest Ireland he moved to Scotland some 16 years ago. He was instrumental in setting up performance poetry platforms both in Edinburgh and Glasgow before moving to the Scottish Highlands. He now lives in Glasgow.

He published his first volume of poetry `In The Boat I Don't Yet Have` in 2002.

His first collaboration with musicians was with acclaimed button box player Leo McCann from Armagh and DJ Dolphin Boy from Edinburgh, performing at Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow and at the Bongo Club at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

A collaboration with musicians Iain Copeland and Seumas MacLennan (of Scots band The Peatbog Faeries) resulted in the CD "Rustic" a recording of simultaneously created music and poetry.

Aidan published his first volume of poetry `In The Boat I Don't Yet Have` in 2002. The poems in this collection of Aidan's poetry draw on the author's experience of life in Glasgow and Edinburgh and latterly his time in Lochaber and the Small Isles.

Often comical, sometimes despairing, always insightful and dramatic, these poems are written in a deceptively simple and engaging style that leaves you wondering what the next poem will bring.

Aidan McEoin takes us on a turbulent and thought provoking odyssey through landscapes of the imagination to the dark corners of our souls and from there, back to reality.

"In the boat I don't yet have" is available from Borders Bookshop and Cafe Rio. It is also available at the 'Third Moon on the Left' evenings at the Hidden Lane Cafe.

Aidan's album, Rustic, combines his contemporary style of Scottish poetry with music composed by Iain Copeland (Peatbog Faeries) and Seamus MacLennan and with guest performances from a whole gaggle of Scottish-based musicians

John Mitchinson writes: 'On holiday this year on the tiny Hebridean island of Eigg, I met a poet. He gave me a CD he had recently recorded on the Isle of Skye, of him reciting his work to music. This happens a lot to publishers (even ex- publishers). But what almost never happens is you put on a CD and discover something so fresh and contemporary and hip and catchy that you have to ring the poet back. Well, I did. It's as far away from the farpy-parpy cod-Celtic style as you can imagine.'

Rustic is available from www.phatcontroller.co.uk

Aidan is currently working on his second volume of poetry and has been commissioned to write his first theatre play for the national touring theatre company `Quondom` based in Penrith, Cumbria.

I THOUGHT I’D FORGOTTEN

It was you I saw in my dream

One day long ago

I’d thought I’d forgotten

For a time I did.

You’ve materialised in form

Rumbling through the rubble

Of barriers that have fallen

Powerless to your truth.

I respond with the honesty

As I did in my dream,

Welcoming you in my reality

With friendship, trust and respect-

With a oneness so rare

I’d thought I’d forgotten,

For a time I did.

You’ve revived an emotion

Within me

That has so much to give,

To share, to hold,

To lean upon.

I’m there and here now

One day long ago

I’d thought I’d forgotten,

For a time I did.

My confusion is my reality:

Deep down inside

A flame flickers,

Responding to the fire of

Conviction that burns within you.

Your strength of resolve

A beacon

To the weakness of those and i

Who would shut out

Human compassion towards

Others that are vulnerable

For nothing other than a

Possession

That could never truly be possessed if

Stained or tainted with a narrow mind,

A selfish ego, an unjust love.

An acceptance with a humility

Of your hurtful honesty-

An inspirational testimony

To those and i

Who are fortunate to share.

My strengths are within-

Safe, unworthy

Until now.

I offer them to you

Without condition, with all I am

Capable of.

The flickering flame

Responds, with love.

A GIRL WITH COPPER TINTED HAIR

Animated radiance of

Copper tinted hair

Curt features

So aware

Contrasting red coat

Awareness

So rare

That I in my drunken glance

Can only stare

Words fail me

To express what I fear

Who are you close to

And are they here?

Yes

You of the copper tinted hair

In tune with your

Autumnal surroundings

I am here

Alas, you are there.

ONE DRAM TOO MANY

The vibrancy

When the bottles uncorked

The euphoria

When the cork is thrown into the fire

The knowledge, that

Springs to mind, a third of the way down

The omniscience

When halfway down

The aggressiveness

Towards the bottom

One last attempt, the bottles empty

So is the room.

PEOPLE

People on a make

People on a take

People on a break

People on a fiddle

People on a diddle

People on people

They all fall down.

It is as it is

One can never change it

One can never be it

Yet we strive for it

We live for it

We aspire to it

We never accept it

But it will always be

It.

I HOPE

I hope, that there,s hope

For us, that hope

That there,s hope

I hope.

COMING AWAKE

I wake to the prism of light

That illuminates your contours

Yellow buttercups gently sway

Along your meridian line

I gently touch your charkas

Then passionately merge them

With mine.

BEACH

Rolling sea surf sound

Reminds me of you

Ebb and flow.

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