‘Me’ by Carla Woodburn

And my final post this evening is ‘Me’ by Carla Woodburn from her debut collection Carla (2022) published by Leamington Books. Carla is a champion of poets and all things poetry and hosts her own poetry show called Express Yourself with Sunny Govan Radio which airs each Thursday evening which you should definitely check out and you can listen online here. Also, you can purchase a copy of Carla’s collection here.

I am sharing the opening poem from the collection which is not only an excellent introduction to the collection but also to the poet herself. I hope you enjoy!

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Me

Am a Heilan lass,
Born an bred,
Just like the coo,
A heilan bairn of the toon of Tain.
A tattie lover and planter,
Fae the fields.
My ma n da they taught me weel,
Thaymselves fae Glesga dwellings.
They didnae ken their daughter widnae blether
wae the same Glesga tunin.
I wis born a Heilan lass,
Played the bagpipes in class.
Jumped the hay bales and dry grass.
Kin talk like a teuchter if asked.
Albeit a bit mare Glesga as time passed.
A move tae the city in my later teens,
Fur city life I wis keen,
The breght lights and aww the dancin,
Fancied my chancin so’s a did,
Took masel a gallivantin.
But through aw my years,
Only wan passion sincere
Wis my poetry n ma music,
which av awis held dear.
In aw tongues in which we speak,
Gaelic, Doric, Scots, slang fae the street,
Wheriver ye be,
Let yer tongue gang free,
And lang live Scots leid ae poetry.

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References

Woodburn, C. (2022) ‘Me’ from Carla. Edinburgh: Leamington Books, 13