HCE received a lot of high-quality submissions for The Green Issue – sadly, too many to fit inside the magazine! So we offered some shortlisted writers and artists the chance to be published here on the website. Keep an eye on our social media for more great writing like this, in the run-up to the release of The Green Issue…
Plenty
Brian Hill
The cups you fill for pleasure
Drain the heavens in one dry heave
Until the pale granite sky
Shines its broken stars back
Down the parsec-riddled dark
To another useless midnight.
I burn my memoirs in the grate.
I grate my memories in the burn.
I scorn the fields with ash.
I drink the wine of plenty to forget
What we have done.
The plate is passed;
In the ritual of offering
Some tribute is expected.
Gnaw the rindless trees to death
Until the earth herself revolts
And arches her strong back;
Till the wind of change
Deserts us.
Circumnavigate
The weathered globe,
The withered ecosphere.
In just this tiny space,
This brief span of time,
Collect the beaten gold
Which will not fade.
See if it fits your hollow teeth
For it cannot ease your hunger any more.
50 years a poet – Brian Hill writes in English and Scots. He co-wrote the play ‘Pinkybrae’ in 1990, wrote and performed astronomical poems for Aberdeen Planetarium, and collaborated on productions for Glasgow Space Theatre with artist Gill Russell and cosmologist Francisco Diego. Recent work has appeared online (twenty-two poems in 2018-19) and Brian has blogged one poem a week since 2015. His work covers subjects ranging from the natural world to cyberspace, social and environmental issues, conflict and the nature of writing itself. Recent readings and performances include: Forres, Gairloch, Glasgow, Inverness.
Brian’s pamphlet Last Year’s Words was published in early 2019.