For four months, The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has been hosting poets in residence in each of the Gardens. This month Mandy Haggith has been our poet in residence at Edinburgh Garden for the month of July. During her time at the Gardens Mandy has been hosting a number of talks, walks and events at the Garden in association with the Gaelic Tree Alphabet which consists of 18 letters. Each of these letters has then had a different event and poem written about it. Mandy’s latest poem is about the Pine.

being pine

being a clamber frame for a guelder rose

being a toe-hold for a rowan’s pose

being a provider to cross-bills feeding

being a nest-site for sawflies breeding

being a pitch pump instead of bleeding

being slow about sex and even slower about seeding

being a sulphur-shower pollen explosion

being a site for a cone-gatherers’ symposium

being a guru of yang and yin

being supple in a hurricane

being evergreen

being turpentine

being a whisperer of verse

being in harmony with burns

being a partner in tangos with gales

being a ship’s mast with emerald sails

being here despite armies and pulp mills

being an allied supplier of ant hills

being moon-tuned with tidal sap

being an orgiastic wine tap

being a green thing that stands in the way

being this swaying being, being this way

During Mandy’s residency she has been journaling her time at the Garden and sharing the events and poems on the walkingwithpoets blog, which has been set up by the Scottish Poetry Library. To read more of Mandy’s events and poems, you can visit the blog at http://walkingwithpoets.wordpress.com/