Stuart A. Paterson was born in 1966 & brought up in Ayrshire. He received an Eric Gregory Award in 1992 and an SAC Bursary in 1993. He ran the magazine Spectrum, from 1989 to 1996, and his first book, Saving Graces, was published by Diehard in 1997.

In 2012 Stuart returned to Galloway after being away in Manchester from 1998 to 2012. He will surely find the Scots language, and Scotland generally, livelier than when he left. He got in touch with me to discuss the Burnsian vocabulary of our Scots poem from Russia which we published last month, and sent me this one in his living native Ayrshire dialect. In my view there is room for many kinds of Scots. He has written this poem in formal rhyme & metre, as he finds the lyricism of the Scots language best suited to a metrical setting.

DWAM

Ah spied a couple coortin,
Ah watched them as they waned,
Ah kenn't the fawseness o their luve
Tae which thon bond wis chained.

Ah lang't tae tell thaim their's wis wrang,
Ah lang't their joy tae kill,
But, for the skeigh years o their youth,
Ah left them tae their will.

Wull ye no cam back tae me?
Wull ye no say 'tis true
Gin siccan verse is true tae me
But less than yon tae you?

Ah'll no speir ocht that's noisome,
Ah'll no dae ocht that's wrang,
Leastweys Ah'll say but ane thing -
Lass, here's whaur ye belang.

Ah spied a couple coortin,
Ah watched them as they waned, 
An, wabbit as they baith wur,
Ah weesht that we wur thaim.

Stuart  A. Paterson