Edinburgh Revisited
26 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 4 years ago -This Podcast is intended to accompany the Edinburgh Revisited book and exhibition by Gordon Hunter and Don Ledingham. The book will be launched at the opening of the exhibition on the 15th October 2019. The Exhibition will take place at the Stills Gallery, Edinburgh, from the 15th October - 3rd November.2019. All funds raised through books sales and prints will go to support Leuchie House https://www.leuchiehouse.org.uk/ and 500 Miles http://www.500miles.co.uk/.
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Episodes
The Cow and the Photographer
October 14, 2019 13:00 - 1 minute - 1.07 MBThe cow and the photographer Beddit in ma comfy grund Chowin’ on ma dreams I spied ye wi ma half shut ee An’ heard yer pechs and groans. As on ye struggl’t up ma hill An’ heft up oan yer back A monster wi three legs or mair Came climbin’ oot yer sack. A many splindered whirligig It danced upon the rocks Until ye got the better o’ it An’ tied it doon wi blocks The horny-goloch wisnae beat Its legs it push’d an’ sprouted An’ afore I even kent ma’sel I had hupped ...
The 'Bloody' Fringe
September 07, 2019 12:00 - 1 minute - 902 KBThe ‘Bloody’ Fringe Pushed to one side, We see the city Slide from out our hands, In annual separation; The wandering audience On their migration, Like Serengeti wildebeest, Driven on by instinct, Following, following, The stars, while The big cats lie, Waiting idly under trees, Before picking off the weak; Overhead the vultures glide, Lifting on the August air Until they dive To pick on the dried bones Of anxious comedians; “Who are you for?” The hyena asks, But still t...
Princes Street Conversations
September 07, 2019 12:00 - 1 minute - 892 KBPrince's Street Conversations A river of conversations Snatched in the passing Tumble downstream In a wall of broken sound, Eavesdropped from other worlds, The private and banal, The intimate and profane, The guttural grunts, The over-engineered sentences, Of Morningside ladies, The voices of the continents, The language of the streets, Shouting and whispering, Gossiping, Loving and hating, Promising, Pleading, Lying and trusting, But passing by, They fade toge...
Waves Against the Wind
September 07, 2019 11:00 - 1 minute - 909 KBWaves against the wind We are waves against the wind And have two ways to reach the shore By keeping low we hide behind The crashing waves that lead the blind But those who dare to rise and fight And lead the charge in selfless flight Can bear their chests against the storm Their silver manes give god-like form They shout and roar their battle cry Whilst lifting up their pennants high Of danger they need take no heed And live their lives at reckless speed On reaching shallows st...
Blue Planet
September 05, 2019 10:00 - 57 seconds - 777 KBBlue Planet We went to the National Museum To wait in a winding queue To see a piece of moon rock, It was grey and disappointing, And unimpressed, I spent The rest of my time wandering, Lost under the Blue Whale, Trying to take in its scale, This traveller of the globe, Reduced to a skeleton, Swimming above my head, One of 10 million objects, But only the top Of the pyramid on show, The rest stored carefully Under dustsheets, Embodying our world, Yet when I think back ...
One O'Clock Gun
September 05, 2019 10:00 - 1 minute - 892 KBOne O’clock Gun In those Disappearing seconds Before the hour, A weapon lies, Prepared and primed, And aimed upon The uncertainty of time; Down below, Defenceless masses, Trudging through The business of their day, Dig into their Oblivious positions; As a timepiece Gives the order to discharge, And the city echoes, To the monstrous Anger of the gun, Dispatching Unprotected bodies to the air; "Advance" The unforgiving clock commands, Occupy the hours Beyond thi...
Salisbury Crags
September 05, 2019 09:00 - 42 seconds - 600 KBSALISBURY CRAGS The terracotta curtain Collects the evening sun By hanging the cliff-face, In the air, Tipping back upon itself Like a broken flagstone, Cantilevered, Against the Momentary city, Angling back, Effortlessly, Towards the sky, Revealing the ground Beneath our feet, The hard rock, Floating in space, The Dolerite layers The Basalt columns, Aligned with Slide-rule perfection By nature's Eye, A seamless Counterweight, to The random geometry Of Edinburgh’...
Edinburgh Castle Guardians
August 27, 2019 18:00 - 1 minute - 1.15 MBEdinburgh Castle Guardians Sir William Wallace: “I got up this morning. I like to get up in the morning; It gives me the rest of the day to myself.” King Robert the Bruce: “I was out walking the other evening. This fellow stopped me, And asked if that was the moon up there in the sky. I told him that I had no idea as I was a stranger here myself.” William Wallace: “No Bad. Bobby, is it possible to mistake Schizophrenia for telepathy? I hear you ask?” Robert the...
The Scotsman Building
August 25, 2019 09:00 - 1 minute - 1010 KBThe Scotsman Building Stand outside the building, when no one is watching, And place your hand against the stone, To feel its gentle thrum, or, late at night, listen Carefully to hear the oiled presses roll; For this was a heavy industry where ships were built, Leviathan carriers of the truth, That launched across the world to a daily deadline; Deep into the morning dark the lorries rolled, The trains departed carrying the news, And behind them the words soaked into the wal...
Scottish Parliament
August 24, 2019 16:00 - 1 minute - 1.28 MBSCOTTISH PARLIAMENT The Spaniard upturned the boats, Heaving them over with his imagination, Manhandling them with elegant precision, To capsize our narrow expectations, Of function, and of form; Then wandering through the brightness Of his mind, probing for a place, Between the people and the land, He conjured this uncommon space, Shaping it with sculpted beams To vault the weighty Scottish sky, And channel its inclining light Across repeating echoes, Across the granite and ...
Poems in High Walled Garden
August 23, 2019 15:00 - 1 minute - 1.21 MBPoems in a High Walled Garden She sips her lemon tea Within a high walled garden, Beneath a perfect square of sky, Broken by erratic clouds, And sliding gulls; While all around, In, peaceful riot, The colours take their chance, As shadows steal, Across the grass, Shrinking, squeezing, Pressing out the flowers from her space; And throughout, Despite the darkness carving out the light, She makes the most of every hue, Of every scent, of every sense, As single lines are draw...
The Holyrood Garden party
August 23, 2019 14:00 - 1 minute - 895 KBThe Holyrood Garden Party They wait, In the undiscriminating queue, Each clutching A sovereign's invitation, On a white embossed And weighty card, That has, that very morning, Been ceremoniously removed From its honoured place, To call them here, The uncomfortably suited, And the morning suited, The unfascinating fascinators, The wide brims and the pillboxes, The high street combinations The designer labels, The Highland dress And Buddhist robes, The clashing of the co...
Stockbridge Lovers
August 21, 2019 16:00 - 1 minute - 912 KBSTOCKBRIDGE LOVERS Lifting over George Street With the Castle to your back, See Fife on the horizon Silhouetted all in black; Pass Thistle Street, And Queen Street, Then Gardens left and right, Then wonder at the lawyers’ row That stretches out of sight; The cut stone and the palace fronts, The lampposts and the rails, Where each townhouse is a landmark, With their chronicle of tales; But there is no time to linger, The journey is half-done, As the black and shining cobbles ...
A City's Crown
August 21, 2019 14:00 - 1 minute - 867 KBA City’s Crown This Queen of cities Wears a jewel encrusted crown; While others reach towards the sky And raise a multitude of hands To claim attention and respect, Elbowing their neighbours, Shouting their names, The Gherkins and the Shards, With mirrored glass, And ever-changing shapes; This Kirk, this High Kirk, Keeps its nerve, unwavering, Confident in itself, No need to shout Above the crowd, Precisely set upon the Monumental Tower, Its floating arches, Welcoming...
Edinburgh's Monumental Night Out
August 21, 2019 12:00 - 2 minutes - 1.66 MBEdinburgh’s Monumental Night Out Every year, on winter’s shortest day, in dead of night, Edinburgh's statues stir, readying themselves, For their annual expedition, their annual jamboree, Livingstone, the great explorer, leads the way, Then Wellington, the Iron Duke, descends his horse, Holmes wraps his cape around himself against the cold, then Hume, the giant, climbs stiffly from his plinth, While Fergusson and Burns, arm-in-arm, reunite in reverie, Then the artists and the scie...
Flying Scotsman
August 21, 2019 11:00 - 50 seconds - 704 KBFlying Scotsman Standing in a row Outside Waverley Station, Fingers pushed through the wire. Duffel coats and gloves, Socks round ankles. Black, Everything black. Pot-bellied trains Spitting steam Pushing and pulling Hissing, Fighting? Fighting against the tide. All come to a standstill As the Flying Scotsman Flashes under the bridge And disappears from view But not from sight.
Balmoral Clock
August 21, 2019 11:00 - 42 seconds - 595 KBBalmoral Clock Edinburgh's time machine Runs three minutes fast, Reaching forwards Into unknown time, and Experiencing a future Before we get there, Saving us anxiety By building a buffer Between the then, And the now; I always Used to wonder, If something Happened in Those three Short minutes, Could we get That time Again? Erasing our Mistakes, As if they Hadn't really Happened; Perhaps, We should all wind Our watches forward, And live, Perpetually, In three...
The Bank
August 21, 2019 11:00 - 54 seconds - 738 KBThe Bank “I promise to pay The bearer on demand” Is signed beneath With sloping hand, And on this vow We place our trust, Not because we can But because we must; For in exchange Of goods or labour, We treat the stranger As our neighbour, And on such A promissory bill, We come to judge They bear no ill, And so, upon, These good intentions, We build a set Of new conventions, Of loans and transfers Accounts and debts, The system builds On gives and gets, So, watch th...
Waverley Station Pigeons
August 20, 2019 22:00 - 35 seconds - 504 KBWaverley Station Pigeons With echoes of King’s Cross, Ladybank, And Cardenden Hanging in the air, Two boys make statues At a pigeon, Which stands its ground, Staring back, Tilting its head; They throw another shape, It tilts again, Before it turns, And claps itself Into the travellers’ vaulted space; A moment of childhood, Departing, without even an Announcement.
Return from Singapore
August 20, 2019 21:00 - 1 minute - 882 KBRETURN FROM SINGAPORE I took my granny, In her wheelchair, To the Royal Botanic Gardens, She sat in the chair, And I rode behind her, As we careered Around the paths, Shouting and screaming, Screaming and shouting, Leaving families In our wake, Until we got To the glasshouse, Where the heat and humidity, Triggered an untold tale, Taking her back to 1942, The Beradin Rubber Estates With the Japanese at the door, And escaping to Singapore, Where, waiting on the quay, Wit...
A Child's Hand
August 20, 2019 21:00 - 12 seconds - 279 KBA Child's Hand Take your child by the hand And hold the future there Keep them upright if you can Release them if you dare
The Old Royal High School
August 20, 2019 21:00 - 53 seconds - 723 KBTHE OLD ROYAL HIGH SCHOOL "Vivas Schola Regia" Or so the school song went, "Sicut arx in colle sita" ‘Like a citadel placed on a hill’ Watching over its city, But empty now, Empty for fifty years, Boys long departed, Old men now; And with each departing soul The memories are reabsorbed, Into the Athenian walls, The pillars and the place, Until, one day, The last breath slips away, And, in that final moment, If you listen very carefully, You will hear it whisper, "The sch...
The Scott Monument
August 20, 2019 21:00 - 1 minute - 1.17 MBThe Scott Monument I Am a Gothic Rocket, Readying For launch, Fuelled by Imagination, With a single Astronaut, He Is tired of his Legend, he is Weary of his Crown, And so We schemed Together to Escape this Melancholy town, The countdown it Has started, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, And before anyone has Noticed we are reaching for The sun, the tourists run for Cover, their cameras scatter On the ground, as we gradually Lift off in a cacophony of sound, The young t...
Hinterland
August 20, 2019 16:00 - 1 minute - 841 KBHINTERLAND Beyond the city’s limits, Beyond our narrow field of view, Beyond the castles and the spires, Beyond the ancient and the new; It dominates the distance, In a place we seldom understand, Yet in the catchment of our minds, Lies our shadowed hinterland; It looms on our horizon, Yet just keeping out of sight, It guides our every step, And every moment of our night; And in that uncharted landscape, There lies our hidden source, Where rise our mighty rivers, Th...
Friendship
August 20, 2019 14:00 - 1 minute - 768 KBFRIENDSHIP Throughout our lives, True friends emerge In short supply, Amongst the Temporary travellers Who share our path, In fleeting fellowship, Then disappear from view, Without a backwards glance; For friendship sows a seed, A bond that grows, A tie, that absence cannot break, Becoming something in itself, A cherished object, locked away, That places no conditions on its gift, Nor hastening to judge; For friendship sees our better side, Behind the drawn curtains Of ou...
Afternoon Tea at the Balmoral
August 17, 2019 08:00 - 52 seconds - 729 KBAfternoon Tea at The Balmoral Hotel Elegance, Plays softly on the ear, And easy on the eye, Deceiving us With a simplicity, That belies the truth; The practised polished hand, The effortless endeavour, Distilled, and then refined, Where less is more; And here, On a wet and windy, Edinburgh afternoon, We escape, To an exotic place, A world of infusions, From Darjeeling, And Nepal, To a land Above the clouds; The art of ceremony, The easy grace, The dignity of service, ...