noo. aboot the thistle

‘Gies a Scots Poem’ Day, 10th June 2026

2026 marks the centenary of Hugh MacDiarmid’s A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle — a foundational work for contemporary poetry in Scots, and a poem without which, it’s no exaggeration to say, much of the writing in the language today might never have existed.

To mark the occasion, the Scottish Poetry Library asked Scots poet Colin Bramwell to invite ten of the standard bearers of present-day Scots poetry to compose new work in response to MacDiarmid and his legacy.

I was absolutely delighted and totally chuffed to be invited by Colin to be on this esteemed list. My poem, ‘noo. aboot the thistle’, stands up for this omnipresent, multilingual, multi-purpose and totally misrepresented floo’er o Scotland.

Go to ‘Gies a Scots Poem Day’ at the SPL; then scroll down, then click on our images to see/hear us read.

Published by lesleyharrisonpoetry

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Lesley Harrison lives and works on the Angus coast. In her writing, she explores how it is to live at the southern, temperate edge of a much colder northern world. She has held writing residencies in Greenland, Iceland and Svalbard. Drawing from archives, folk myth and cultural memory as well as her own explorations and experience, her poetry and prose make real our negotiation with, and our constant striving to give meaning and scale to, this unstable and ultimately unknowable space. She is a member of the North Sea Poets collective - northseapoets.com.

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