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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 1d

Its day echt o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: doo

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 18h

And by the halie tree
In the leaman licht o the wuid,
Squired by a houlet, a hawk and a doo,
Wes his Euridikee…

—“Orpheus”, by Tom Scott (1918–1995)
from A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS
#Scotstober #poem #poetry
asls.org.uk/publications...

Tom Scott
Orpheus

Ye think thon wes the end?
Yon meetin in the wuids
When Thracian Orpheus heard the drum, the cries,
The whud o the bacchantes’ thrangan feet
And, seik in saul,
Mad to be jyned for aye to his Eurydikee,
Strung his harp
And gaed to meet them wi a sang.
Ye think thon wes the end?

Na. Eftir the thrang breeled on, red
Fingert, bluidie-mawed, the riven limbs
Quiveran aye amang the mairtyred gress,
There wes a lull
And throu it syne a roun
And syne as muckle’s a moan
And syne a voice,
Yon voice o his
That quietit the forest and its fowk,
That reconcilit lion and lamb,
Ordert the rain,
Spoke frae the grund
And threept in the greitan tree
‘Euridikee! Euridikee!’

And at the name
A ferlie thing wes duin.
Thir broken bits o bodie, bits o bane,
Brisket, gash, airm and droukit hair
Cam thegither as gin some will
Mair nor the merely real
Had wrocht on them.
And on yon slauchtert grund was formed
Orpheus anew,
Orpheus the singer, Orpheus the makar,
Orpheus cleansed o the auld despair.
And by the halie tree
In the leaman licht o the wuid,
Squired by a houlet, a hawk and a doo,
Wes his Euridikee.

They say he made a new sang,
A nobler nor the auld,
And sings it aye in the great haa o the warld.

They say it will nevir end.

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 20h

…in ma dreams, ma dou,
I’m staunin here upricht, wi’ you
the lang sheld that I grue ahind.

—Don Paterson, “The Human Sheld”
published in RAIN (Faber, 2010)
#Scotstober #poem #poetry
www.faber.co.uk/product/9780...

The Human Sheld
by Don Paterson

The reason, gin ye waant the truth,
I sleep like this – ma gairdie stieve
upon yer breist, its steekit nieve
laid on yer sma’ hert like an aith –

is no’ for waarmth or peace o’ mind
but that in ma dreams, ma dou,
I’m staunin here upricht, wi’ you
the lang sheld that I grue ahind.

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Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 1d

Its day echt o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: doo

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 1d

Its day seiven o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: kinnen

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

2 2

Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 1d

Noo Maunsie’s wis as guid a tongue
As ever psalm o’ Dauvid sung.
It fittit weel a godly mooth,
And said few wirds ’at wirna truth,
An’ never swöre by Guid or Deil
Excep’ whan kyunnens ate his kail…

—from “Auld Maunsie’s Crü”, by Shetland poet Basil Ramsay Anderson (1861–1888)
#Scotstober #poem

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Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 1d

Its day seiven o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: kinnen

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

2 2

Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 2d

Love is all you need: Remembering The Kingis Quair

Alan Riach discusses The Kingis Quair – a poem attributed to King James I of Scots (1394–1437), & described by C.S. Lewis as “the first modern book of love”
#Scotstober #medievalsky #poetry
www.thenational.scot/news/1737200...

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Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 3d

Its day sax o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: quair

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 4d

Its day five o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: peedie

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

4 4

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 4d

Its day five o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: peedie

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

4 4

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 4d

Its day fower o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: dwang

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

3 3

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 5d

Its day three o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: dewar

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

2 3

Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · 7d

Its day twa o #Scotstober 2025! The day's wird is: footer

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 6d

“I’ll nae longer tolerate this climate of wholesale copulation, it’s costin me a fortune! And I’m tellin yow I’ll no huv ye footerin wi ma chauffeur…”

—from “Mr Puntila & his Man Matti” (1999) by Peter Arnott, translated from Bertolt Brecht
#Scotstober #drama
asls.org.uk/publications...

PUNTILA (Yells) Get them oot! (To EVA) I’m absent fer hauf an hour and the hale place gangs tae buggery. Aye, weel dae yow ken how come the cuddies are in ma claver? Cos the stableman’s shaggin the gairden quean, that’s how come. And how’s thon fourteen-month hutheron got baggit afore her time? Cos the lassie’s joab it is tae mind ma cattle is mixin her moggans wi the prentice boy, which disnae gie her leesure tae ensure ma prize bull isnae lowpin oan ma hiefers and committin random fornication wi onythin oan four legs, that’s how. Mind me tae huv a word wi the wee gairden quean, gin she’d kindly abstain from lowsin her scanties for five minutes, mebbe we’ll huv some tomatoes this year. There’s money in tomatoes, and I’ll nae longer tolerate this climate of wholesale copulation, it’s costin me a fortune! And I’m tellin yow I’ll no huv ye footerin wi ma chauffeur, cos the place is gone tae hell and there’s a leemit tae ma forebearance!

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 6d

“Like a taste in the mouth the memory of them, those countless long since Sunday tea-times, with Mrs Cuffee futtering about getting the table laid and ‘Children’s Hour’ on…”

—Alan Sharp, A GREEN TREE IN GEDDE (1965)
(A new edition of which is coming very soon …)
#Scotstober

As she went in the sound of her father’s voice, raised to make a point in some discussion and she could hear Robert Eldman saying ‘yes, I’m sure that’s so’, and the rattle of crockery. Sunday evening tea. Like a taste in the mouth the memory of them, those countless long since Sunday tea-times, with Mrs Cuffee futtering about getting the table laid and ‘Children’s Hour’ on, always something about saints or explorers who were Christians and competitions she never entered and Uncle Mac saying ‘good night children, everywhere’, and it was always cheese for tea or cold meat with halved tomatoes and Cuffee would be upstairs and she would half help her mother and half listen to the wireless and Mr Cuffee would be in the garden smoking a pipe and listening to the evening birdsong.

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Association for Scottish Literature @asls.org.uk · 7d

For want o luve we live on hate,
For want o Heven praise the State,
For want o richts we worship rules,
For want o gods the glibbest fules…

—Sydney Goodsir Smith, “Prolegomenon: The Deevil’s Waltz”
in A KIST O SKINKLAN THINGS
#Scots #poem #poetry #Scotstober #richts
asls.org.uk/publications...

Sydney Goodsir Smith
Prolegomenon
The Deevil’s Waltz

Rin an rout, rin an rout,
Mahoun gars us birl about,
He skirls his pipes, he stamps his heel
The globe’s gane gyte in a haliket reel.

There, the statesman’s silken cheats,
Here, the bairnless mither greits,
There, a tyrant turns the screw,
Here, twa luvers’ broken vows.

Enemies out, enemies in,
Truth a hure wi the pox gane blinn,
Nou luvers’ lips deny luve’s name
An get for breid a chuckie-stane,

We kenna hert, we kenna heid,
The deevil’s thirled baith quick an deid,
Jehovah snores, and Christ himsel
Lowps in the airms o Jezebel.

The sweit that rins frae his thorned brou
Is black as the staunan teats o his cou
In the waltz o tears, an daith, an lies,
Juliet’s fyled wi harlotries.

O luve itsel at Hornie’s lauch
Skeers lik a caunel i the draucht,
The dance is on, the waltz o hell,
The wund frae its fleean skirts is snell.

It whups black storm frae lochan’s calm,
Sets banshees in the house o dwaum,
Gars black bluid spate the hert o me
—An watters guid-sirs’ barley bree!

A few damned feckless fanatics
Wad halt the borneheid dance o Styx,
Their cry o truth the whirlwind reaps,
For pity’s deid, and mercy sleeps.

Orpheus alane dow sauve frae deid
His ravished Bride gin but she’d heed—
Ay, truth an luve like Albyn’s life
Hing wi a threid, kissed be a knife.

Ilk derkenin owre some huddered toun
The pipes an fiddles screich an boom,
The cauldron’s steered by Maestro Nick
Wi a sanct’s shin-bane for parritch-stick.

He lauchs his lauch, the angels greit
Wi joy as they dine on carrion meat;
Ablow, bumbazed, dumfounered cods,
We seek the starns in dubs an bogs.

Oor ingyne’s deaved, oor mous are shut,
Oor saul contract like a runkled nut,
Een cannae see the trees for the wuid
An hert is cauld for want o bluid.

For want o luve we live on hate,
For want o Heven praise the State,
For want o richts we worship rules,
For want o gods the glibbest fules.

Obey, Obey; ye maunna spier!
(Libertie’s disjaskit lear!)
While Cloutie pipes it’s crime tae think,
—It’s taxed e’en higher nor the drink!

O, rin an rout, we birl about,
Tae the rhythm o the Deil’s jack-boot,
Black as auld widdie-fruit, Mahoun
Bestrides a kenless mappamound.

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Ewan M Hannah @ewanmh.bsky.social · 7d

I was thinking earlier about my favourite Scots words, then found out that today is the first of #Scotstober. The word that led me down this path was: maukit (alt. mawkit); which means filthy, dirty, manky, mingin, hingin, boggin, and generally maggot-ridden.

a cartoon character is dancing in a field with a yellow background .

ALT: a cartoon character is dancing in a field with a yellow background .

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

📚Erin Houston📚 @thereadwarrior.bsky.social · 7d

#Scotstober 2nd #Footer

Some say faffy, Scots say footery.

Tae ding up oor new smart tele wis gey a footer.

Dr Michael Dempster @drmdempster.bsky.social · Sep 2

🚨Annooncement!🚨

Here yer #Scotstober 2025 wirds!

A'm sharin on aw platforms, but maistly follaein on BlueSky this year.

A'm luikin forret tae yer warks 😁

Wirds as text ablow

1 2

Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Albert Kirk Jr @albertkirkjr.bsky.social · 7d

#Scotstober: Fouter

Fae Moby-Dick, Ch. 16

Noo, this ploy o Queequeg’s, or raither Yojo’s, titchin the walin o wur craft; A didnae like thon ploy at aw. A haed no a tait lippent on Queequeg’s wit tae pint oot the whauler best fittit tae cairry us an wur weirds siccarly. 1/2

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Stefanie Neumann @kokopellibfree.bsky.social · 7d

Ower mony fittert aboot, luikin fer somethin, tae haud ontae. Anely, thay coudnae find onythin while reakin oot.

---
(Ah'm nae native spikker)

#Scotstober 2025-02nt #footer
#WriteInScots #Scots #Doric
#WritingCommunity

Ower mony fittert aboot, luikin fer somethin, tae haud ontae. Anely, thay coudnae find onythin while reakin oot.

© Stefanie Neumann - @KokopelliBFree
#Scotstober 2025-02nt
footer

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Ewan M Hannah @ewanmh.bsky.social · 7d

Gonnae try tae keep up wi #Scotstober. Glaikit: (adj., of a person); stupid, slow, dozy, dimwitted, thick as mince, no very richt, no very bricht, a general dunderheid.

Confused Confused Look GIF

ALT: Confused Confused Look GIF

media.tenor.com

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

Gregor Steele @gregorsteele.bsky.social · 7d

Wha remembers the ticker tape machine frae schuil physics? Yaisin ane wis a richt footer and maist o the time yir teacher tellt ye whit ye should o fund oot. #Scotstober

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

trinitynvll @trinitynvll.bsky.social · 7d

gin yer feelin hardly gay
turn yer eirs owr essa-way
why at neyht must-shud we play? wit att we lose on passin day

when de moon dus bring her leyht
chills frill frosts o fluttered freyht
worried sick o mebbes an meyhts
i cannet mek mi wrongs fro reyhts

#ottawavalley #dialect #language #scotstober

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Reposted by Dr Michael Dempster

LeftPeggers 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 🇵🇸 @leftpeggers.bsky.social · 7d

#Scotstober
#Haiku
#Footer
#Translation

Fit an affa footer
Tae nae hae’t aa yer ain wye
Til ye mind on her…

What an effort
To not have it all your own way
Until you remember her

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