Publications

Full Scottish Breakfast

Full Scottish Breakfast Red Squirrel Press, 2011.
58 pages. £6.99
ISBN 978-1-906700-51-5

Full Scottish Breakfast is a headlong journey from space age innocence through to cynicism and eventually into bemused middle age, taking in frantic and funny encounters with mad teachers, wrecked cars, heroes, villains, painters, sheep, chihuahuas and dead relatives along the way in an attempt to make sense of whatever has led to here.

A reading from Full Scottish Breakfast is included here: Clone Of Destiny

"Far-sighted exploration, committed energy, and self-deprecating wit ... Fulton's poetry unfailingly sends you spinning round in a sort of transparent whirlpool. His lyrics are some of the true treasures of contemporary poetry in Scotland".

Gutter

"An aptly discomfiting collection, and a beautifully evocative diorama of "mortal grace". In a single breath, you go from surface to depth and back again, and history and the multiverse in between. Each word, a tiny, perfectly-placed depth charge. The effect is giddying, revelatory. This is the sensational alex harvey band in ink and infinity; the book you'd hold close on the last ship to outer space".

Suhayl Saadi

Chihuahua

From Full Scottish Breakfast

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In Gabriels pub the match is on
a massive, plasma, wall-mounted screen.
Scotland have won the toss, Nil Nil.

A granny in a pink plastic coat
nudges beside us, takes a sip
of lager from her half pint glass,
tells us that she had to have
her dog put down this afternoon.

Ian thinks at first she said Son;
he may have misheard, the crowd is loud.
Scotland are holding on, we're calm.

I miss him a lot, he was just this big
she says, and demonstrates her claim;
a foot of space between her palms.
We try our best not to catch her eye.

It's nice to have.... Ukraine have scored
in darkest Kiev, the clock ticks on.
We watch the drama of life unfold:
red offences, homer ref,
goal-line punts, theatrical dives.
He was thirteen, and had all his teeth.

A last minute penalty bulges the net,
she asks the barstaff to call her a cab.
Ian thinks at first she said Son.
He may have misheard, the time is loud.

Scotland are passing out, we're done.
I always fed him chicken and veg,
dog food's crap
. Scotland are mince.

"Graham Fulton has been one of Scotland's foremost poets for many years, and this is one of his most complete and representative collections among others published over the last few years. Full Scottish Breakfast takes us on a trip from the absurd to the tragic, the tiny to the cosmic, the loving to the angry, and that's just for starters. He can be hilarious, gut-wrenchingly affecting and deep by turns, turning the relatively small area of his native town and city of Paisley and Glasgow into a universal place, and sharing it with us in his profoundly quiet, powerful voice. The intense humanity of these poems is what you will take with you long after you've read them. Get hold of this collection from a leading poet at the height of his powers".

David Manderson

"Graham Fulton speaks boldly. there is an abruptness and aggressive tone in Fulton that may shock some … he quickly gets to the heart of the matter".

Scottish Review of Books

 
Graham Fulton Poetry From Scotland