Soon to Be Sixty
 
I discover a favourite writer
with every new decade that turns.
At ten I would gladly recite a
“Some hae meat…” by Rabbie Burns.
 
At twenty Bob Dylan disarmed me
with “Tangled Up in Blue”.
“Simple Twist of Fate” really charmed me.
“You’re a Big Girl Now” turned the screw.
 
At thirty I chanced on a master,
an Orcadian, George Mackay Brown.
He mingled success with disaster.
He knew that the king was a clown.
 
At forty I heard Kenneth Steven
bring a Christmas Day in at Dunkeld
with a story he seemed to believe in
of a baby that he almost held.
 
At fifty I witnessed Ben Okri
in Edinburgh at the Book Fair.
Perhaps he’ll be on at Pitlochry
one of these days while I’m there.
 
I’m due to hit sixty next summer.
Whose talent will thicken the plot?
A poet, a singer, a strummer?
I love all of these guys a lot.

Duncan Gillies MacLaurin


If you have any thoughts on this poem, Duncan Gillies MacLaurin would be pleased to hear them.