It is with great sadness that The Shakespeare Code records the passing of one of its most distinguished Fellows – the great Glaswegian poet – Eddie Linden. Here is his photo, rightly placed in the National Portrait Gallery of London.
And here is his most celebrated poem about Glasgow – ‘City of Razors’:
‘Cobbled streets, littered with broken milk bottles,
Reeking chimneys and dirty tenement buildings,
Walls scrawled with FUCK THE POPE and blue-lettered
Words GOD BLESS THE RANGERS.
An old woman at the corner, arms folded, babe in pram,
A drunk man’s voice from the other pavement,
And out come the Catholics from evening confessional;
A woman roars from an upper window
‘They’re at it again, Maggie!
Five stiches in our Tommie’s face, Lizzie!
Eddie’s in the Royal wi’a sword in his stomach
And the razor’s floating in the River Clyde.’
There is roaring in Hope Street,
They’re killing in the Carlton,
There’s an ambulance in Bridgeton,
And a laddie in the Royal.‘
R.I.P. Fab Eddie.
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