Hamish Whyte
Hamish Whyte is a poet, editor and publisher. He runs Mariscat Press, publishing poetry; has edited many anthologies of Scottish literature; and his latest book of poems is A Bird in the Hand (Shoestring Press). He is an Honorary Research Fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University.
In his studio, Matisse,
an old sultan in specs,
sits among cages,
a white dove clasped in his left hand
sketchbook propped on his knee.
Three other doves out of their cage
pose unnoticed by the artist,
looking this way and that
they’re extras, a nice ornament top right.
The charcoal gives the single dove
its new shape
its freedom on cartridge:
which might we envy -
the bird
fixed for ever on the page
or the dying man
who feels its heart pulsing
through warm white feathers?
stoic (not cynic)
your daughter’s dog
Badger hirples along
Glenogle Road -
you can see
where dogged comes from
he lifts his head to stare
at invisible foxes
in the Academy undergrowth
sniffs walls and posts
for the latest news
lavishes more attention
than it deserves
on a scraggy plant
by the Snakey path
bits of him don’t work
he has to be wheelbarrowed
up the Dunrobin steps
have his haunches held
over the Bell Place bridge
rewarded with biscuits
after every pee and poo
the cartoon persona
the skewed ambling
the whingeing rug with
the baleful look
the deafness to commands
the interrogation of objects -
he’s really an early
Greek philosopher transmogrified
into a woolly liquorice allsort
The old couple
board the train
and make for a table
with facing seats.
The woman says
you sit here
and see where we’re going
I’ll sit there
and tell you where we’ve been.
All poems from Hamish Whyte, A Bird in the Hand (Shoestring Press, 2008)
