Scottish Writers' Centre Water as Poetry Inspiration

Morelle Smith and George Colkitto both have new collections of poetry largely inspired by water. In this workshop we will consider water as an element of poetry.

George Colkitto has based his whole book on one sheet of water, Castle Semple Loch at Lochwinnoch in Ayrshire, which he visited regularly for a year. He will look at the varying moods of water and the environmental impact of water, memories, moods, human behaviour and that of the water birds. Using a single observation point enables him to emphasise both continuity and changes over time, while the water keeps flowing through all.

Morelle Smith uses the idea of Liminal, where land and water meet. Her poems travel with water, we see the effect of ocean and storm, flood and landscape. As she wanders through a world infused with her special poetic vision, the power of water is a constant. Water divides and unites, it is inescapable. Morelle Smith finds water and shores everywhere and assimilates them into her poetic vision.

The poets will talk about their collections and how various poems arose from the theme, and we will then read one poem from each collection in depth, for the presence of water and what it can represent.