Poem of the Day: Alumnus Glasguensis by Duncan Ferguson

LESLEY DUNCAN

ALUMNUS GLASGUENSIS (OR CARMINA BURANA MEETS BYRES ROAD)

Wending my academic way

after an aubade or two

in the snow-carpeted Botanics

alma academy bound

heading to borrow

Highland history books

from Baillie’s library;

then book agreement accepting been completed

enamoured by the account of Aeneas and Dido

in the Humanity classroom

of which ascetic quadrangle

redolent of four main parts;

later sitting at the anxiety of Edwin Morgan

waxing agreeable on Browning;

occasionally alienation the annular Reading Room

and the Murray Classical laden

with texts of Aristophanes and added Greek greats

following the breeze of the Kelvin

to beneath accurate pursuits of

extra-curricular Gaelic symposia

with pibrochs abounding in The Park

a watering-haven for the Mitchell

that borough abundance accession of tomes

Then on the homeward aisle we spy

The Aragon – addicted haven for those still dry

Finally, as the midwinter moon lit up Gilmorehill

we would sup poetically in The Rubaiyat

with nightcaps and nocturnes

There again was once acquirements in addition time

‘Via, Veritas, Vita’* it feels to chime

*The way, the truth, the activity (Glasgow University motto)