Back cover text:

The poems in this collection chart the main staging posts in Scotland’s recent history. As writer, theatre director, storyteller and political foot soldier, 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.

Ranging from a celebration of the Holyrood parliament to a dialogue between Jamie and 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.

This book is for anyone interested in where Scotland is going. Donald Smith writes poems to reflect on in the early days of a new nation. Take a long stride at his side…