AH. THE WEE CLEAN AIR OF LOCHWEEDOM by Robbie (The Nude) Kinfiddle

This unusual edition compiled by Abacus publishing, brings together the definitive collection of Scotland's foremost poet and commentator, Robbie  Kinfiddle, known to his friends as 'Robbie The Nude".  Born Robert McNude Kinfiddle in 1887 into the backdrop of Scotland's bleak Loch Aberdoodle, he grew up to be, essentially, a grown man. Then he set about in the nearby town of Glenbuttock to seek his fortune with his singular brand of laconic and observationalist poems. An example of his early verse would be the lyrical "Ooooh, I steppes on sum shit I tells yaer "  where he defiantly announces:

Ooooh, I steppes on sum shit I tells yaer!
just thee other day
Right in it ah went
An ma wife wouldn'ai let me in tha hoose after

The unusual a-rythmic qualities to his verse soon caught the attention of traditionalists, some who felt his was a step toward the modern, while others felt he was an illiterate fool who merely could neither spell nor actually write poetry.

His poetry, however has stood the test of time. When read in it's original pronunciations, the verse is languid and up to date. We can see from a later work "Ballocks to yer" that even in old age, he was as fresh and visceral as ever:

Ballocks to yer!
Yer auld fool 
Yer barrered twenty coins from me 
Fai booze 
And neer gave em back. 
Lord how I hate yer fer that.

Robbie died in 1947 and on his headstone a fitting epitaph from his most famous poem "Aye, I was a right loooooon":

Aye ah may hai gang nooo,
Boot I leave yer with this:

Ah was a kindly man,
But ma poems were piss.

 Bill I'Temised

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