Gavin Bowd was born in Galashiels in 1966, and teaches in the School of Modern Languages at the University of St Andrews.

He was the founding director of the StAnza poetry festival, and his poetry, fiction and translations have been widely published. His essays on Scottish and European literature and politics have been recently published in Ian Hamilton Finlay et la Revolution francaise (La Nouvelle Alliance, 2000) and St Andrews Citizen - homage to Dr Jean-Paul Marat (edited by Gavin Bowd, AURA, 2001).

His poetry collections include Technique (1999) and Camouflage (2001).

TOP 

Related links

› Gavin Bowd at University of St Andrews

TOP 

Featured poem

Rifle Song
for Diana

We know that the taiga
still hides your stripes.
We will grind your paws
to aphrodisiac.

Lovers demand it.
our skins are lonely,
and girls just flash
in our magazines.

The rifle's more true
than bows and arrows.
We will grind your paws
to aphrodisiac.

Birch splays before
miles of new snow,
fuelling our noses,
our four wheel drive.

A shaman might fly
on a pig-skin drum,
like lead propels
through our barrels.

We caught that look
in the big-lashed eyes
of a doe who bled
still from her haunch.

We left the fire
and released the bolt
when a feline appeal
caressed the tundra.

We know that the taiga
still hides your stripes.
We will grind your paws
to aphrodisiac.

© Gavin Bowd