Hello, Stranger Poems
The Very Bottom of Sauchiehall Street by Charlie Gracie
As restrictions end and the world allegedly returns to normal we will see our friends and loved ones again and reacquaint ourselves with familiar social situations but also be cast, after a long interval, into a society which might have changed, into the company of strangers.
The WBF has commissioned fourteen new poems on the theme ‘Hello, Stranger’, however that might be interpreted. Seven are from Dumfries and Galloway, some weel-kent faces and not a few surprises! Seven are from well-established poets beyond our frontiers. It’s an ambitious selection, and will take you unexpected places. What a joy to wake up to a new poem every morning! Each entry will have a link to the poet reading, the text of the poem and a small biography. Enjoy!
Charlie Gracie is a poet, novelist and short story writer, originally from Baillieston, Glasgow and now living on the edge of the Trossachs, in the other Thornhill. He is a writer who likes to capture moments of empathy and humanity, exchanges with the world we can all identify with. His first full collection of poetry, Good Morning, was published by Diehard Publishing in September 2010 as part of the beautiful metallic hardback series. A paperback version was printed in 2011 and reprinted in 2015. His second collection, Tales from the Dartry Mountains, was published by Diehard, in 2020. His novel To Live With What You Are was published by Postbox Press, the literary fiction imprint of Red Squirrel Press, in 2019. It was long listed for the Bath Novel Award that year.
Here he reads the delightful The very bottom of Sauchiehall Street, about a chance meeting and far more than that.
The very bottom of Sauchiehall Street
She stood at the bottom of Sauchiehall Street the lassie.
Vacant she looked.
Stood and looked up, right over the top of the building
right up, stock still she was
looking right up over the building to the clouds
creepin through blue Glasgow sky.
Least that’s what I saw
when I stopped beside her and looked up
over the top of the building into the sky.
She shifted her gaze to me
smiled
and when I smiled back she said
I’m just playin.
Good that, just playin, and she had me playin along
lookin up
over the top of the building from the street,
stopped in the footfall, stopped in the middle of it all.
Playin too.
Bye, I said.
Bye, she said, and went back to lookin up.
Charlie’s Website here;
The series is curated by Hugh McMillan, poet and writer, Ambassador for the Scottish Poetry Library in 2020 and Editor of its anthology ‘Best Scottish Poems’ for 2021.