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Lallans, or Scots, is an earthy language, very couthy, pithy, and full of humour and weirdness: tapsalteerie for topsyturvy, for example. But to use it in poetry these days one feels like a Burns imitator. One feels one's standard English is more widely accepted - comprendi? :-)

TAP ROOT


Ah'll go doon intae the grun
and find a big rolling tongue,
a great tap root
too lang undergroon, an' no' young
anymair, no' spoken up there
the way it wis before.

Wurds like tapsalteerie,
meaning topsy turvy,
whigmaleerie and eldritch;
wurds ye hiv tae dig up,
tatties uncovered frae the earth.

Hauding oan tae ma mither tongue
is whit ah want tae dae; ah want tae
pull it oot o' the soil and bring it
intae the light o' day
where the highheidyins
kin hiv a look at it,
and maybe a dialect poem,
a Glesga fleur,
will spring forth and clyde
like a root canal
linking east and west,
saying sumpin' true ,like:
It's no everybody that wants
fur thur tae be a war!