THE James McCash Scots Poetry Competition for 2021 has been won jointly by Sheila Templeton and Alan MacGillivray, both Glasgow-based and former first-prize winners. More than 150 poets responded to the theme of Thinking of Others.
Below are the two winning poems. Sheila Templeton’s is short, profound, and lyrical, reaching the heart of the theme. Alan MacGillivray salutes, with a mixture of knowledge and demotic wit, “The Sma Fowk,” the ordinary people, who saved Scotland’s integrity at several crucial points in the nation’s history.
Five competitors, some new to the competition, were highly commended for their entries: David Bleiman with The Snaws o Yestreen; Willie Hershaw with Hameless MacSuibne’s Lament; John Hodgart with A Sair Doonfaw (But an Uplift Tae); Jock Stein with Haudin wi a Body, and Rab Wilson with Umbilical.
The judges were Professor Alan Riach of the Chair of Scottish Literature, Glasgow University, Dr Joanna Kopaczyk, senior lecturer in Scots and English, School of Critical Studies, Glasgow University, and The Herald's Lesley Duncan.
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