“Are you cold?”

Govanhill Library – Glasgow

On this very cold but sunny day in Glasgow, I gave out the poem ‘beaches (14)’ from Rebecca Perry‘s glorious new pamphlet, beaches (Offord Road Books, 2019). It was hard to choose which to give out, but I decided on this lemony one to give the people of Govanhill some vitamin C!

In the library they were offering free copies of a book called Blether (a Scottish slang word meaning ‘to have a chat’) – a collection of true stories submitted by the Scottish public, to celebrate Book Week Scotland.

The Library had just got new photocopier which no one knew how to use yet, so a nice librarian named Ewan let me use the one behind the desk. Later he came out and took a poem off me: “I recognise this!”

It was a busier spot than last week for handing out poems, and it took no time at all to give them all out to friendly passers by. One woman asked me for directions, and one man asked if I was warm enough. I also met a woman who was taking her rubbish out (the communal bins are next to the library) who said she didn’t think she’d read any poetry since school: “I remember doing that one about the daffodils over and over…” 

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beaches (14)

lemon juice
in your cuticle cuts
is not punishment
for anything
it is serendipity
it is one star crossing another
in a flat sky
essentially
it is god

lemon juice
lifts almost any dish
roll it on the worktop
be thankful
squeeze

speaking as a person
with almost no experience
pain can be
a gift