“Finola Scott’s poem ‘Honour’ brings us the shock of a younger person’s mortality. I feel very strongly the sense of the loss of someone else’s son through the conversation with her own child. Death touches every one of us and in many ways, we never expect it in those younger than us. The poem suggests the inescapability of death and its way of seeping into all our lives without too heavily labouring the point and is the more affective for that.” – Jane Burn, guest editor.
Honour
My son’s pal, another courier, is killed.
He was helpful – advised on safe routes, tied
threads to escape the Stock Market Bulls
of London’s metropolitan maze.
We arched our cycle pumps over his coffin,
a guard of honour, Mum.
Not safe at all. He was torn, tangled in money
and speed. My son pulls himself tight.
We spray-painted his outline on the road.
Bright yellow, like the jersey.
[Previously published by Black Bough]
Finola Scott’s work is on posters, tapestries and postcards, in anthologies and magazines
such as New Writing Scotland, Gutter, Fenland Reed and The Lighthouse.
Her poems have gained success in many competitions. Stanza Poetry Festival commissioned work for a multi-media installation. The current Makar of The Federation of Writers (Scotland), her pamphlet, Much left Unsaid is published by Red Squirrel Press.
Celebrating Change 