Poem of the Week: Caroline Knox

The Scottish Play

The Scottish play the bagpipes with dignity to escort people from here to there.  You can read about this in Wee Gillis. An English teacher was teaching himself Finnish:  “Every morning my wife and daughters ask me, Have you finished your Finnish?”  Well, had he?  Finnan Haddie!  It’s an appealing idea, costumed musicians accompanying you wherever you go.  Bath is an antithesis of Scotland, fount vs. tarn.  Elsewhere, a mighty pinto was named Atlas not because he was strong (which he was), but because his markings described the Americas.  Suppose you are headed up the crags to visit this tarn.  In the US your car has bumpers; in the UK, guards.  Bumpers is defeatist, isn’t it?  As if you knew you’d crash.  This text could be set in Helvetica. ________________________________________________________ Caroline Knox‘s sixth book, Quaker Guns (Wave, 2008), received a Recommended Reading Award 2009 from the Massachusetts Center for the Book.  Her eighth book,Flemish, will appear in 2013.  She has recent work in A Public Space and Denver Quarterly.