Imagined Spaces
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imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Imagined Spaces
@imaginedspaces.bsky.social
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We see writing as making & thinking, & thinking as a means of making writing. We value exchanges, initiating conversations with artists and writers & people from all walks of life to explore what it means to be alive today. Website: imaginedspaces.org
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“So what was Glasgow like to a young gay writer in that period … You don’t go silent. You circumvent, you encode, you enfabulate … You work by methods not unlike those used by dissidents in authoritarian regimes.”

—Edwin Morgan, “Transgression in Glasgow”
#LGBTplusHM 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️
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Book cover: Edwin Morgan IN TOUCH WITH LANGUAGE A New Prose Collections 1950–2005 Edited by John Coyle and James McGonigal The cover image shows a photo of Edwin Morgan in three-quarters profile, taken by Marshall Walker circa 1975. Morgan is in his mid-fifties; he is wearing glasses with thick black frames, and looks pensively down and to the right. The photograph is covered by a riot of semi-transparent multicoloured swirls and shapes. I already felt myself to be ‘different’, and had had gay experiences, but without having the word ‘gay’ and without having much knowledge of the things I was increasingly drawn to. It was a time of silences and inhibitions and guilts and quests and mistakes and very gradual understanding. So what was Glasgow like to a young gay writer in that period from say the late 1930s through to the 1950s (I can’t speak about wartime Glasgow because I wasn’t there, I was abroad in the army from 1940 to 1946 – that’s another story, of which perhaps a little, later on). Physically, visually, the city was very different from what it is today after the massive stone-cleaning, smoke abatement, and general refurbishment of recent years. It was a dark city. I’d like to quote from a little article I recently wrote about this. The piece was written for a public brochure about Glasgow, but I quote it because it has some coded homosexual references. It’s called ‘Fog City’: Without being nostalgic about it, I have a strong recollection of the great Glasgow fogs of the decade after the Second World War. In the spruced-up city of today, these are now no more than memories, and no doubt thought of as a good riddance, but to a writer (or indeed any artist) dark cities can be as attractive as bright ones. At the end of the 1940s, Glasgow was still heavily industrialized, with many soot-blackened and grime-encrusted buildings, and with smoke pouring from thousands of coal-burning chimneys. It was also a city of unabashed and prolific smokers. And of course it is a northern city of early winter evenings. So its fogs could be spectacular. One night in 1947 or 1948 I was returning by train from London, and when I got into Central Station I could not understand why such a crowd of people was massed at the entrance. I soon found out why. Gordon Street was a silent wall of impenetrable grey. There were no buses, trams, taxis or cars to be seen or heard. It was a stricken, immobile place. No one could get home. I booked a room in the Central Hotel, and as I slipped between the sheets I reflected it was the first time I had stayed at a hotel in my own town: an experience! These fogs penetrated everywhere; in the cinemas each film looked like Quai des brumes, and the Golden Divans in Green’s Playhouse were more than usually seductive. The long cinema queues of those pre-booking days, snaking round whole blocks, huddled together as if afraid some segment might break off and be lost for ever. We did not curse the fog: it was simply one recurring phase of the environment. Half-sinister, half-romantic wanderings by the River Kelvin seemed incomplete unless the nose-prickling waves of an oncoming fog combined with the acrid but haunting smell of the scummy effluent on the water to fix a future memory unmodified by anything politically correct. (Moira Burgess, Reading Glasgow). Green’s Playhouse is a huge cinema, which was famous as a place of gay resort for many years; people came to it from far and near, and on a foggy night, when you could hardly see the screen, anything could and did happen. The management would periodically conduct a sudden blitz on the activities, using some of their better-looking staff as agents provocateurs, who would sit beside you, make advances, and if you responded would march you out to the foyer and declare that you were barred. You left it for a week or two, came back, and no one noticed. It was a great Glasgow institution, and there must have been many sad hearts when the building was demolished. Another reference in the article which would say more to some people than to others is the night scene by the River Kelvin: Kelvingrove Park was (and is) one of the main trolling areas after dark, and also, perhaps inevitably, a haunt of muggers, so my description of it as half-romantic and half-sinister contains or conceals that other resonance. Perhaps the fog that I used in that passage, though perfectly real, can also be taken as a metaphor. Gay contacts, gay friendships, were by no means unobtainable but took place in an atmosphere of secrecy, of deception and pretence and machination. Information was by word of mouth; there were no gay clubs or magazines or videos, and if any establishment such as a pub attracted a gay clientele it could never advertise the fact. The shadow of illegality, of the severe penalties of being caught (not only of imprisonment, but also social ostracism), hung like a cloud in the background all the time. I don’t forget how I happened to be in a cinema (not Green’s Playhouse!) at a time shortly after Sir John Gielgud had been arrested and charged with persistent importuning of male persons, and when his name appeared on the screen of a film that was being shown the audience uttered a hiss of disapproval. That was the climate of the period, and it meant that most gays, whether they wanted to or not, were leading double lives. And can I remind you that this situation lasted not until 1967, when the law was changed in England and Wales, but until 1980, when the separate Scottish legal system at last got round to a degree of liberalisation. So it was an oppressive time, and if you are a writer, a poet, you have to find ways and means of dealing with it. You don’t go silent. You circumvent, you encode, you enfabulate, you invent parallel or analogous worlds. You work by methods not unlike those used by dissidents in authoritarian regimes. From the 1950s onwards, I knew that I wanted somehow to write about that side of my life, and that side of my life in Glasgow and Scotland, and I developed my own strategies for doing so.
February 1, 2026 at 6:36 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
In these days of political turbulence and misleading information, a trenchant new essay by Duncan McLean on reading Sonallah Ibrahim...

Chronophagy and Confetti: Reading Sonallah Ibrahim — IMAGINED SPACES share.google/D3ETO9pX6tMK...

@asls.org.uk @duncanmclean
Chronophagy and Confetti: Reading Sonallah Ibrahim — IMAGINED SPACES
[The] piling up of snippets of testimony from books, memoirs, documents, and letters is symptomatic of the contested history… for many former colonies, protected states, dominions, and mandates. Indep...
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January 26, 2026 at 8:55 PM
Reposted by Imagined Spaces
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Wring the Scottish rain clouds dry;
Take sleet, the driving snow, the hail;
Winter twilight; the summer’s sun slowed down
to pearl-sheen dusk on hillsides, city-roofs,
on lochs at midnight…

—Rob Butlin, “A Recipe for Whisky” 🥃
in WITHOUT A BACKWARD GLANCE (Barzan 2005)
Happy New Year!
#poem #poetry
A Recipe for Whisky by Ron Butlin Wring the Scottish rain clouds dry; Take sleet, the driving snow, the hail; Winter twilight; the summer’s sun slowed down to pearl-sheen dusk on hillsides, city-roofs, on lochs at midnight. And, most of all, take the years that have already run to dust, the dust we spill behind us… All this, distill. And cask. And wait. The senselessness of human things resolves to who we are – our present fate. Let’s taste, let’s savour and enjoy. Let’s share once more. Another glass for absent friends. Pour until the bottle’s done. Here’s life! Here’s courage to go on!
January 1, 2026 at 12:01 AM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Enjoyed the clip of Roderick Watson reading the title poem of his new collection, The Silver of Old Mirrors? Watch the entire book launch, filmed and edited by Helena Ohman (of Rare Bird video) at www.imaginedspaces.org/conversation.... @asls.org.uk
December 19, 2025 at 1:54 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Last week Roderick Watson launched his poetry collection, The Silver of Old Mirrors, at the University of Dundee Main Library. Here's a short clip from the event: Watson reading the title poem. @asls.org.uk youtu.be/XddI30Q1JxE
Roderick Watson reading "The Silver of Old Mirrors"
YouTube video by Imagined Spaces
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December 18, 2025 at 6:16 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Alan Riach reads Roderick Watson's new poetry collection: "an independent voice, beautifully poised and sharply pitched." Watson will be reading from his book 10 December, 5pm @Dundee University @asls.org.uk @byleaveswelive.bsky.social

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The Silver of Old Mirrors — IMAGINED SPACES
‘Old men ought to be explorers’ wrote T.S. Eliot. ‘An aged man is but a paltry thing,’ W.B. Yeats tells us. And Dylan Thomas exhorts us, ‘Do not go gentle into that good night.’ Watson is certainly an...
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November 23, 2025 at 8:20 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
The Voyage Out Press invites all to the launch of Roderick Watson's new poetry book @ Dundee Uni Library, 5pm 10/11/25 Free & open to all; to book pp.events/bq8B5y7K
“These are poems made to last, to return to, to keep giving. And they do.” (Alan Riach) @asls.org.uk @byleaveswelive.bsky.social
You're invited to "Book Launch & Reading." Tap here to RSVP - Paperless Post Flyer
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November 23, 2025 at 6:31 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
An engaging and intriguing essay starting out with the nerántzi, the bitter oranges growing in Athens, and then taking a walk, reflecting and "unpeeling" the city.
www.imaginedspaces.org/new-writing/...
Unpeeling the Bitter Heart of Athens — IMAGINED SPACES
Athens' restless streets groan with oranges. These vibrant, natural outcrops are unexpected in this cacophonous, car-dominated metropolis, a city where genuine green spaces are thin on the ground…. Th...
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November 16, 2025 at 8:33 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Spolia becoming stories... Skendha Singh's marvellous essay on walking through Delhi. @skendhasingh.bsky.social share.google/VmgzoeNdhZQ1...
Staking the snake: on seeing, knowing & other imaginations — IMAGINED SPACES
I am looking for correspondences, not answers. After twenty-one years in the city, I decide to take guided walking tours of its heritage monuments. The first is of the Qutub Minar complex. Some physic...
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September 25, 2025 at 11:39 AM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Michael Sorkin's 250 things an architect should know reimagined for creative writing students. Probably something all writers would feel some connection with...?
‘15 things a creative writing student should know’ — IMAGINED SPACES share.google/Yl9pzJpFzUju...
‘15 things a creative writing student should know’ — IMAGINED SPACES
This was an exercise set at the very end of our Creative Essays module, which I caught sight of again recently. Kirsty and I loved the original list by the architect Michael Sorkin, titled ‘ 250 thing...
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September 25, 2025 at 11:31 AM
Reposted by Imagined Spaces
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Fade then, light; but longing never will.
Midsummer makes the west spectacular
and even gives its last glow a show
of reluctance, as if it had postponed
midnight…

—Edwin Morgan, “21 June”
Published in CATHURES, @carcanet.bsky.social 2002
#BookWormSat
www.carcanet.co.uk/978185754617...
Edwin Morgan 21 June Fade then, light; but longing never will. Midsummer makes the west spectacular and even gives its last glow a show of reluctance, as if it had postponed midnight. But midnight is too faithful. You're back among the black, the black, you're down and fit to drown, to drown, you're padding into nightmare town. You haven't got a house, a bed-light, there are no clocks or telephones out there, you are on your own, you have a large panic waiting to break through your chest, you are panting, you count, as it arrives, each brimming pang. What a clutch of sheets! What a parody of pain! The longest day, the night is not so long. You fling back the curtains, the morning sky is like a meadow. What is it you want? I don't know. You cannot walk there. No. So what do you want? The morning, perhaps, and then I want the day, another day.
June 21, 2025 at 3:55 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Acts of Creation: On art and motherhood engages head and heart. The exhibits engender a conversation with viewers. Thoughtful and engaging. www.imaginedspaces.org/taking-a-lin...
Acts of Creation: On Art and Motherhood — IMAGINED SPACES
Acts of Creation engages both head and heart. The exhibition asks us to think about how ‘the image of motherhood changes when the artist is drawing on lived experience’ and ‘what challenges are level...
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June 20, 2025 at 9:47 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Here's a really interesting, evocative piece of creative writing by Zoe Faloon developed from Kirsty Gunn's Masterclass using material from Pretty Ugly (Rough Trade Books 2024) in late March of this year. @asls.org.uk www.imaginedspaces.org/the-writing-...
‘Flight Path’ — IMAGINED SPACES
A masterclass workshop by Kirsty Gunn at the University of Dundee, 28 March. The workshop used an extract from ‘Flight Path’ in Pretty Ugly (Rough Trade, 2024) as a means to engender more creative ...
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June 4, 2025 at 3:37 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Reflecting on the University of Dundee DJCAD 2025 degree: a conversation about art, exhibitions, artist statements, the importance of being able to experiment and play. (Last day to visit 1st June.) @asls.org.uk @vadundee.bsky.social @dundeeculture.bsky.social
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Reflecting on the 2025 DJCAD degree show... — IMAGINED SPACES
Helen Pryde and Gail Low sample the University of Dundee DJCAD degree show. The visit, and the impressions made by the small sample of work they did manage to see, sparked a reflective exchange about ...
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May 31, 2025 at 10:36 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Ever want to know how song writers compose? Here's a marvellously thoughtful essay by the Dundee musician & lyricist, Nicola Madill, on the making of her new album, "The Night is Long". Links to some tracks too. @asls.org.uk @vadundee.bsky.social www.imaginedspaces.org/new-writing/...
Listening as Thinking: On The Night is Long..… — IMAGINED SPACES
I’ve always been interested in the way that different forms of writing feed one another. The way that lines in books can become hooks for songs, and verses can become stories that are shared around th...
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May 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
A lovely meditative essay by William Hume pondering how we imagine & connect with the past via an encounter with Andrew Baldwin's 2020 sculptures, The Sisters, at Woodbridge Boat Yard in Suffolk. @ianhume.bsky.social @asls.org.uk www.imaginedspaces.org/new-writing/...
Past, Present..… — IMAGINED SPACES
In what ways do these iron-cast women [ The Sisters ] contain the seeds of their lives lived in flesh? Ornery women whose presences are recollected in the boatyard with voices boomeranging the open ri...
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April 8, 2025 at 6:00 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Bernadette Ashby reflects on her experiences as a practising clinician in Neuropsychology… of the importance of putting those ‘embedded, complicated and for the large part wordless set of experiences’ she still holds within her into words. @asls.org.uk @britishneuropsych.bsky.social bit.ly/3DJMain
The Imagined Spaces of Self — IMAGINED SPACES
Bernadette Ashby reflects on her experiences as a Consultant Clinical Psychologist in the NHS, with a specialism paediatrics and health, and neuropsychology. She writes of the need to put those ‘embed...
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March 27, 2025 at 7:11 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
A lovely new essay by @chrispowici.bsky.social on 'spacetime', intense moments of apprehension when commonplace assumptions about reality fall away. @asls.org.uk www.imaginedspaces.org/new-writing/...
Strathallan Spacetime: The Glamourie of Place — IMAGINED SPACES
“… something had ‘happened’ to me as I walked. I’d felt, touched , a word once used commonly (including, I seem to recall, by my mother) for people who behave in a benignly odd way, as if they have b...
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February 27, 2025 at 9:27 AM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
Andy Jackson's invitation to write in response to Trump's 'Executive Orders' made me smile: 'It's going to be a beautiful thing, folks. People say it may be the greatest poetry project of all time, maybe ever... what are you waiting for? Poem, baby, poem!' www.facebook.com/share/p/19EU...
Redirecting...
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January 24, 2025 at 11:30 AM
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agrayarchive.bsky.social
Pls share! ⭐️ GRAY DAY 2025 ⭐️ our FIFTH annual event in what would have been AG’s 90th birthday year, Glasgow’s 850th & AGA’s own 5th anniversary through an evening of celebration, this is a crucial fundraiser to help us keep operational so pls come support & celebrate 🎟️ via link in bio 🙏
January 24, 2025 at 8:44 AM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
New on 'The Writing Studio' of imaginedspaces.org. 'The dress' by @Marianne L Berghuis from a BookWeekScotland , inspired by Kirsty Gunn's short story, 'Mirror, Mirror' from her @roughtrade1976.bsky.social short story collection, Pretty Ugly. @asls.org.uk www.imaginedspaces.org/the-writing-...
Mirror, Mirror — IMAGINED SPACES
This is an edited film in two parts of an Imagined Spaces workshop for Book Week Scotland at The Larick Centre, Tayport, 21 November 2024.
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January 24, 2025 at 11:16 AM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
New on imaginedspaces.org: Charlie Ellis considers the work of Bernard Crick on the shape & mode of the political essay. @asls.org.uk @charlieellis www.imaginedspaces.org/new-writing/...
In defence of the political essay — IMAGINED SPACES
Charlie Ellis considers the work of Bernard Crick on the shape and mode of the political essay: “The essay should try to tell a deeper story…. we might usefully draw a distinction between the essay an...
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January 24, 2025 at 11:05 AM
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When we take prisoners from other worlds
we are not cruel. We let their bodies die.
They become words, filtered into air…

—Edwin Morgan, “Twilight of a Tyranny”
a #ScienceFiction #poem – from COLLECTED POEMS, @carcanet.bsky.social 1997
www.carcanet.co.uk/cgi-bin/inde...
Twilight of a Tyranny Edwin Morgan When we take prisoners from other worlds we are not cruel. We let their bodies die. They become words, filtered into air. We became words, we infiltrate the air. I know sometimes in the long midnights we throw open a window. It is hot, the bluish branches are all motionless. We cannot sleep. And some poor word creeps in. Cold, blue was your skin when I crept in. The mines are stiff with gold, our treasuries are locked and locked and locked, our guards are guarded by passwords we’ve suborned with baseless hopes. Deep in the vaults I am the password, hope. Even you might tremble at our plans, great lords. What do we care for life that comes and goes as we sit in our iron seats? We’re armed; there are no dragons; time is long. We shout, and words come singing with our wine. They shout. We sing the curdling of the wine. Astronomers once said our sun was dying. Where are they now? Our towers blaze and stare. We made them words to wander with the wind. We warned you, in the rising of the wind. You know you’ll never see your world again? Threats, bribes, tears, guns you can put away. No urns – no dust! Watch me at the switch, and then you can complain like nightingales for all the sense dead words will ever speak. Your thrones are death. Ours is the reign of speech.
January 20, 2025 at 4:53 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
@tseliotprize shortlisted: 'Pilgrimage strengthens faith that the words will reach us and the echo of their music remain.... Fierce Elegy, in its ferocity, is for the Ages.' @penguinbooksusa.bsky.social @penguinrandomhouse.bsky.social
@poetrysociety.bsky.social
dura-dundee.org.uk/2025/01/12/f...
Fierce Elegy
Peter Gizzi(Penguin Books, 2024); pbk, £9.99 In his collection, Fierce Elegy, Peter Gizzi offers us words which recognise all the contradictions in loss and grieving.…
dura-dundee.org.uk
January 12, 2025 at 7:16 PM
imaginedspaces.bsky.social
TSEliot Prize shortlisted: 'An altogether emotionally enriching and open-fisted collection for a world transformed by newness, and suffused with love and renewal.'
@picadorbooks.bsky.social
@poetrysociety.bsky.social
www.imaginedspaces.org/taking-a-lin...
Signs, Music — IMAGINED SPACES
Much has been written more recently about new mothers, laughed at or conspiratorially grimaced with in face-to-face encounters in post-natal and toddler groups. And because pregnancy and childbirth ar...
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January 11, 2025 at 5:16 PM