A Long Stride Shortens the Road

Ranging from a celebration of the Holyrood parliament to a dialogue between Jamie Saxt and a skull, from a proposed national anthem to an autobiographical journey through pre-history, A Long Stride Shortens the Road traverses a Scotland that is irrevocably independent of spirit, yet universal in outlook.

The poetry in this collection chart the main staging posts in Scotland’s recent history. As writer, theatre director, storyteller and political footsoldier, Donald Smith has been at the centre of the cultural action. The poems, however, also reveal a personal narrative of exile and attachment, an intimate engagement with Scottish landscape, and a sense of the spiritual in all things.
This book is for anyone interested in the crucible out of which Scotland emerged, and where it might be going. Donald Smith writes poems to reflect on in the early days of a new nation.