London to Edinburgh: waiting for the moment

Running rest-day ... and here's another of my very favourite Scottish Poets: Norman MacCaig; the pictured volume is one of my most treasured.

My better-half is down in London just now, and I've been reflecting on MacCaig's famous 1988/89 poem, "London to Edinburgh".

Here it is in full:


London to Edinburgh

I'm waiting for the moment
when the train crosses the Border
and home creeps closer
at seventy miles an hour.

I dismiss the last four days
and their friendly strangers
into the past
that grows bigger every minute.

The train sounds urgent as I am,
it says home and home and home.
I light a cigarette
and sit smiling in the corner.

Scotland, I rush towards you
into my future that,
every minute,
grows smaller and smaller.


You can almost hear the 'clatter' of the train ;-)

Great poem about travel, home, age and our unknown futures.

I was fortunate enough to hear MacCaig recite some of his poetry (in the early 1990's) not long before his death in 1996. Interestingly, the recital-event was at the South Bank in London :-)