EDINBURGH REVISITED
Picture-Poems Celebrating the City
by
Gordon Hunter & Don Ledingham
Edinburgh Revisited is a remarkable book of fifty eight Picture-Poems, which pick out many of the traditional, some might say clichéd views, of Edinburgh, putting a twist on them both in terms of the photographs and the accompanying poems.
The Picture-Poems are also available as A2 prints and will be on exhibition in Edinburgh’s Open Eye Gallery.
EXHIBITION OPEN:
SAT 15 JAN to SAT 5 FEB 2022
{TUES TO FRI 11AM TO 5PM. SAT 11AM TO 4PM}
Open Eye Gallery, 34 Abercromby Place, Edinburgh, EH3 6QE
0131 557 1020 | mail@openeyegallery.co.uk | www.openeyegallery.co.uk
All proceeds of sales of prints and books to go to: Leuchie House (www.leuchiehouse.org.uk) 500 Miles (www.500miles.co.uk)
“In this collection, words and image succeed in creating a striking record of the love affair that so many of us have with this city. This book is a love letter – but not a private one: it is a love letter in which we all might share.” Alexander McCall Smith
PICTURE-POEM EXAMPLES
FLYING
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.
THE BALMORAL 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 minutes
Of grace.
A 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 the light,
See the morning garnets flash,
The amethysts at sunset,
The iridescent pearling light
Of flat Edinburgh afternoons;
Resolute, it holds its place,
Self-assured and grounded;
A People’s Crown,
After all.
SCOTTISH 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 the oak,
Across the concrete and the steel,
Each surface holding his attention,
Disturbing his sleep,
Until his wakened dreams took shape,
Beyond confinement, escaping
The formality of dullness,
The chains of common sense,
To look in upon our land,
To see what we cannot,
Telling our story;
For this is more than just a building,
It is a poem for a nation,
Beyond the finite grasp of humankind,
Abstracting the geometry of thought,
It challenges us to think
Far beyond those who judge
With an accountant’s eye;
For this is a place of liberty,
Of wisdom of the mind,
So treat it with respect,
For we are all,
Including him,
But passers
By.
SPONSORS
A huge thank you goes out to a number of Edinburgh-based businesses that provided financial and moral support to the Edinburgh Revisited project. These included:
Suported by
