St Mungo's Mirrorball And Edinbugh Trams

I’ve been mulling over what to read tonight at St Mungo’s Mirrorball in Glasgow (7pm, free, details at the link for anyone in the vicinity). I doubt many people, if anyone, will attend both this and also at the Edinburgh launch next week, so I could read the same set at both events. However, that would be boring for me, so I’m trying to choose a good spread of poems that offer variety. Also continuity. And entertainment. And provocation. And so on…

I was reading Colin Will’s reflections on Edinburgh, which currently resembles a giant building site. Not only in the city centre but all over. You can’t go any distance without encountering roadworks, temporary traffic-lights etc. It’s a terrible eyesore, horrendously noisy, and makes travel in the city a miserable experience. You’ve got to feel sorry for the tourists who have come to visit one of the most beautiful cities in Europe and instead they find themselves in a dust-filled nightmare. As Colin suggests, there’s a suspicion that it’s all a complete waste of time and money. I have a poem about it in my book, titled ‘The Deconstruction Industry’, which I’ll certainly read in Edinburgh next week.