Andrew Greig was born in Bannockburn, and studied Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. He lives in Orkney and Sheffield. Summit Fever (1985) and Kingdoms of Experience (1986) chronicle his participation in major climbing expeditions. His six books of poetry range from short love lyrics to the epic Men on Ice (1977) and Western Swing, an ironic play on the Grail quest. He has also written five novels, including When They Lay Bare (1999), based on the Border ballad 'The Twa Corbies', and In Another Light, set in Orkney and Penang. His poem 'Orkney / This Life' (see below) is included in the Scottish Poetry Library's new anthology Intimate Expanses. In Another Light was awarded the Saltire Society Prize for Book of the Year 2004.

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Related links

› Read more about Andrew Greig.

› Hear Andrew Greig read this and other poems on Bloodaxe's website.

› www.kalwriters.com/archive/greig.html
A bibliography of Andrew Greig's writings by Craig W. McLuckie

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Books I love

An old favourite
'While at school I was affected and encouraged by the poet Alastair Mackie, the first living poet I met. The second was Norman MacCaig, who remained for many years a generous and perceptive inspiration; as has Edwin Morgan. Much of the poetry I was affected by then was in the Penguin Modern European Poets series - Miroslav Holub, Zbigniew Herbert, Cavafy, Elytis, Galtsos, Prevert, Apollinaire and Mallarme being especial favourites. I was completely bowled over by Ed Dorn's Gunslinger, without which I wouldn't have continued with Men On Ice, which led me to climbing in the Himalayas due to a gifted mountaineer Mal Duff who didn't realise poetry is essentially metaphorical...'

A new favourite
'Current favourites, joys and benchmarks remain: all Don Paterson; John Glenday; Mark Strand; Rilke's Duino Elegies in the Andrew Young translation.'

Andrew Greig, 2004

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Featured poem

Orkney / This Life

For Catherine and Jamie

It is big sky and its changes,
the sea all round and the waters within.
It is the way sea and sky
work off each other constantly,
like people meeting in Alfred Street,
each face coming away with a hint
of the other's face pressed in it.
It is the way a week-long gale
ends and folk emerge to hear
a single bird cry way high up.

It is the way you lean to me
and the way I lean to you, as if
we are each other's prevailing;
how we connect along our shores,
the way we are tidal islands
joined for hours then inaccessible,
I'll go for that, and smile when I
pick sand off myself in the shower.
The way I am an inland loch to you
when a clatter of white whoops and rises...

It is the way Scotland looks to the South,
the way we enter friends' houses
to leave what we came with, or flick
the kettle's switch and wait.
This is where I want to live,
close to where the heart gives out,
ruined, perfected, an empty arch against the sky
where birds fly through instead of prayers
while in Hoy Sound the fern's engines thrum
this life this life this life.

Andrew Greig © 2001
from Into You (Tarset : Bloodaxe, 2001).