My Left Foot Foxtrots: Poems in Scots and English

The poems in 'My Left Foot Foxtrots' have been written mainly in a vivid Scots, with a few in English. There is a glossary of Scots words for those who need it. The collection contains a variety of poems, serious, satirical and comic, often incorporating people and places Jim Waite has seen on travels around the world as well as commenting on Scotland today. Some were written for performance. Characters appearing in the poems range from Catherine the Great and Garibaldi to his own friends and family, as well as flamenco dancers, dachshunds, a mynah bird, an outrageous Queen, Lenin, a cathedral organ, politicians, soldiers, teachers, a snoring farmer, pompous old Scotsmen and the Forth Road Bridge among many others.

Jim Waite was born in 1942 and educated at Edinburgh's Royal High School and Edinburgh University. He taught English in schools in Edinburgh and Campbeltown before becoming a headmaster in Perth, retiring in 1992 to write and travel. His poetry comes from wide reading and interest in Scots as a vigorous language appropriate for subjects not only close to home but also across the world. He has experience of acting in plays written in Scots, helping, he says, to attune his ear to the rhythms of the language in its spoken form. Some of the poems have won prizes in major Scots poetry competitions. In addition to poetry he writes short stories and plays, and his work has been broadcast and performed.