Favourite Poems about Glasgow?

[alexboyd]

Aside from the excellent poems by Edwin Morgan, does anyone have any favourite works about the city? Please repost them here, or any that you recommend

[Lucky Poet]

It's only partly about Glasgow, but 'Glasgow, 1960' by Hugh MacDiarmid is a wee gem. I don't know about the legality or otherwise of posting it here, but I guess a mod can take it down if it's really not ok. It was published in 1935 by the way...

Returning to Glasgow after long exile
Nothing seemed to me to have changed its style,
Buses and trams all labelled 'To Ibrox'
Swung past tight as they'd hold with folks.
Football match, I concluded, but just to make sure
I asked; and the man looked at me fell dour,
Then said, 'Where in God's name are you frae, sir?
It'll be a record gate, but the cause o' the stir
Is a debate on"la loi de l'effort converti"
Between Professor MacFadyen and a Spainish pairty."
I gasped. The newsboys came running along,
'Special! Turkish Poet's Abstruse New Song.
Scottish Authors' Opinions' - and, holy snakes,
I saw the edition sell like hot cakes!

[onyirtodd]

I'm rather fond of the Shipyard Apprentice (aka The Fairfield Crane)

The Fairfield Crane

Archie Fisher / Norman Buchan / Bobby Campbell

I was born in the shadow of the Fairfield crane
Where the blast of a freighter's horn
Was the very first sound that reached my ears
On the morning I was born
I lay and I listened to the shipyard sound
Coming out of the great unknown
And was sung to sleep by the mother tongue
That was to be my own

But before I grew to be one year old
I heard the sirens scream
As a city watched in the blacked-out night
A wandering searchlight's beam
And then at last I awoke and rose
To my first day of peace
For I'd learned that the battle to stay alive
Was never going to cease

I sat and I listened to my father tell
Of the days that he once knew
When you either sweated for a measly wage
Or you joined the parish queue
As times grew harder day by day
Along the riverside
I oft-times heard my mother say
It was tears that made the Clyde

Now I've sat in the school from nine till four
And I've dreamed of the world outside
Where the riveter and the plater watch
Their ships slip to the Clyde
I've served my time behind shipyard gates
And I sometimes mourned my lot
But if any man tries to mess me about
I'll fight like my father fought

(as sung by Archie Fisher)

You can hear Archie sing this song at http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/features/clyde Choose the session player>Archie Fisher

[Lucky Poet]

Sheesh, these things are like buses; you wait for ages then two come along at once.