“This is punch-the-air poetry, the knowing in that feeling place in your gut that someone understands and can put it in words so much better than your own”
—Alison Craig reviews Roddy Lumsden’s SO GLAD I’M ME (Bloodaxe, 2017)
7/7
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2018/07/so-glad-im-me-by-roddy-lumsden/
According to the blurb on So Glad I’m Me, this collection from Roddy Lumsden is ‘lighter and less inward looking’ than previous collections, his ‘most optimistic and accessible book’ since the Book of Love in 2000. Expecting of this poet some damned good poetry, and knowing that good poetry will always demand of me as […]
From 2017: Roddy Lumsden talks about his work & his collection SO GLAD I’M ME, published by Bloodaxe Books & shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize.
6/7
Ambition knocks – a tropical disease.
My voice slows up and comes at you
as if through a wave of coconut milk…
—Roddy Lumsden, “The Drowning Man”
from POETRY magazine, June 2004
5/7
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=42182
I’m trying to string together three words
which I hate more than I hate myself:
𝘨𝘰𝘣𝘴𝘮𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘥, 𝘩𝘶𝘣𝘣𝘺 and … when I realise
that words no longer count for much at all…
—Roddy Lumsden, “My Pain”
from MISCHIEF NIGHT (Bloodaxe, 2004)
4/7
https://www.bloodaxebooks.com/ecs/product/mischief-night-782
You bastards! It’s all sherbet, and folly
makes you laugh like mules. Chances dance
off your wrists, each day ready,
sprites in your bones…
—Roddy Lumsden, “The Young”
from POETRY magazine, Dec 2008
3/7
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51937/the-young
Mischief Night – Roddy Lumsden’s Return
12 June, Waverley Bar, Edinburgh – free
In 1997, Roddy Lumsden launched his first full-length collection, YEAH YEAH YEAH. The event heralded the arrival of one of poetry’s most mercurial talents, as Roddy proved over seven more collections prior to his untimely death in 2020. 29 years on, his friends & fans return to celebrate what would have been his 60th birthday
2/7
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/mischief-night-roddy-lumsdens-return-tickets-1987736447222
Into perplexity: as an itch chased round
an oxter or early man in the cave mouth
watching rain-drifts pour from beyond
his understanding…
—“The Beautiful”, by Roddy Lumsden (1966–2020) – born #OTD, 28 May. A 🎂 🧵
from POETRY magazine, Dec 2008
1/7
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/51938/the-beautiful
“This is punch-the-air poetry, the knowing in that feeling place in your gut that someone understands and can put it in words so much better than your own.”
—Alison Craig reviews Roddy Lumsden’s SO GLAD I’M ME (Bloodaxe Books, 2017)
5/5
https://www.thebottleimp.org.uk/2018/07/so-glad-im-me-by-roddy-lumsden/
According to the blurb on So Glad I’m Me, this collection from Roddy Lumsden is ‘lighter and less inward looking’ than previous collections, his ‘most optimistic and accessible book’ since the Book of Love in 2000. Expecting of this poet some damned good poetry, and knowing that good poetry will always demand of me as […]
From 2017: Roddy Lumsden talks about his work & his collection SO GLAD I’M ME, published by Bloodaxe Books & shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot Prize
4/5
Ambition knocks – a tropical disease.
My voice slows up and comes at you
as if through a wave of coconut milk…
—Roddy Lumsden, “The Drowning Man”
Published in POETRY magazine, June 2004
3/5
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=42182
Assoc for Scottish Literature