Round 1: Denmark-Scotland

PREAMBLE

Bearing in mind that Denmark and Scotland are the locations for two of Shakespeare’s greatest tragedies, what could be more appropriate than asking Lady Macbeth to give today’s team talk?

‘I have given suck,’ she explains, threatening the Shakespearean equivalent of the hairdryer treatment, ‘and know/How tender ’tis to love the babe that milks me…
I would, while it was smiling in my face,
Have pluck’d my nipple from his boneless gums
And dash’d the brains out, had I so sworn as you
Have done to this.
… screw your courage to the sticking-place,
And we’ll not fail.’

Thanks for that, Lady MacB. With those fury-flecked words of inspiration still echoing from the dressing room walls, it’s time to meet today’s Poetry World Cup contenders.

Representing Denmark are the ‘words, words, words’ of Amalie Smith, a writer and visual artist who made her literary debut with ‘The next 5000 days’ (Gyldendal, 2010), a hybrid text which brings together prose, poetry and photography. A second collection, ‘I CIVIL’, is currently being translated into English by Paul Russell Garrett.

Ryan Van Winkle comes from Connecticut, but has been based in Edinburgh for over a decade and represents Scotland in our world cup. He is currently Poet-in-Residence at Edinburgh City Libraries, and he records a weekly podcast for the Scottish Poetry Library. The Glasgow Review has described his poetry as being ‘at the forefront of a shift to something new, it is on the way to a perfection of some new movement.’

Wait, Listen, If

If you are reading this
I hope you are going slow,
that the gulls have clasped
their constant beaks. If
the roads are icy, test
the brakes when you are alone
see if you slide. Leave
the fools and cowboys
to their wreckage

~ Ryan Van Winkle

Read the full poem

RESULT: Scotland won by 9 votes

Editor’s note: If, for any reason, you’re unable to vote in the poll, please leave the name of the poem/country you’d like to vote for in the comments.