Roddy Shippin is the poet featured in the lively Curriculum Vitae, the pamphlet which won the runner-up prize of £600 for his publisher, QuemPress, in this year’s Callum Macdonald Memorial Award for poetry pamphlets.
A streak of wit runs through the pamphlet, even in these two less satirical samples of his writing.
A LIGHT LUNCH
Nana spreads her hands on the dining table –
back massaged by osteoporosis.
A still afternoon
but the air is busy about her;
Windows are opened and
closed before
callused midwife fingers usher forth
another steak pie from the oven
to be set next to our yawning china
and her small bowl of soup.
Passing hours refine each contradiction,
fold up the space between extremes:
cracked bones on a tough frame,
fierce heart under broken ribs
English from a bilingual mouth
carrying a razor-sharp bluntness:
“you’re piling on weight”
as another meringue is set on my plate.
MINCH
the prow is manufacturing foam
breaking a ghost path in surf
in the distance
windfarms cartwheel kinesis
spinning generation upon generation
a toddler is tipping his bottled-water into the sea
freeing it again to mingle and scatter
forehead creased in concentration
at each drop in the ocean
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article