iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

And the third, and last (but by no means least) of our shortlisted poems is “A Girl from the City, Another on the Edge by Wiccaspellrose! “A friendly face. An unsaid knowing. A hello to you, and welcome.”

A Girl in the City, Another on the Edge
Wiccaspellrose

A girl in the city, another on the edge.
Fell in love.
Their eyes caught across a dance floor. Their heart in beat with the music.
One catches her breath, the other moves forward.
Without words. Lips touch. Worlds explode.
Thirty years later, outgrown city noise. They move to a dream of space.
Air. Green trees. Birds singing.

The girl on the edge worries.
Dark fear. Creeping dread. Voices whispering. They won't like you. You're different from them. You won't fit in.
You can't hide in a village of seven hundred people.
They will talk. Point. Ignore.
Stay here where its loud.
Hide amongst the thousands. Hide in plain sight.
You were only jumped once.
Holding hands in public, I mean.
The broken nose set. The pain forgotten.
The one on the edge shook away the dark fog. The mist. The words.
And signed on the dotted line.

The city girl, bold as brass. The one on the edge quiet and cautious.
She moves slowly. Feeling the atmosphere. A mouse twitching her whiskers.
The city girl and the one on the edge walk out. A new life.
The one on the edge pulled to the book shop.
A friendly face. An unsaid knowing. A hello to you, and welcome.
The one on the edge looked around.
Flags of pride. Danced. Fluttered. A grand calling.
A surprise squeeze of the city girl’s hand.
Their eyes caught across the book shop. Their heart in beat with the silence.
One catches her breath. The other whispers
We're home. Lips touch. Worlds explode.

111

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 01/09/2026

The next of our Shortlisted poems is …. It Isn’y Halloween by April Golightly! “No, the part I want to focus on is the decent Gala folk Who heard and did not just walk on but challenged how he spoke…”

It Isn’y Halloween
April Golightly

I’d been here just about two years, still hadn’t made a friend,
Tried going out for coffees, beers - gave up in the end,
Mainly stayed inside my flat, just went to work and back,
Accepted life would be just that. Till the day of the attack.

See, sometimes people look at me and I’m not what they expect,
Decide they don’t like what they see and that I don’t deserve respect.
I’m not young and I’m not thin but I don’t hide that away,
I wear clothes I feel good in no matter what folk say.

That day I set out from my flat and walked along the street
In bright pink shirt and bowler hat, my pride boots on my feet.
A local chap passed by me and did not like what he’d seen,
So chose to sneer and tell me, ‘It’s not bloody Halloween.’

I’m kinda used to all that stuff, I could have just gone to my car,
But that day I thought enough’s enough – this has gone too far.
I stopped and turned myself around, said, ‘Excuse me, what was that?’
I was anxious but I stood my ground and got ready for a spat.

‘You heard me,’ he called over his shoulder. I said, ‘I heard the words you uttered,
But I wondered why you weren’t bolder? I wondered why you muttered?
If you have something to say to me then say it to my face,
We’ll agree to disagree, but say it with good grace.’

And then as if a sewer burst, he vented out his bile,
Called me names, and swore, and cursed in ungentlemanly style.
I won’t give air to what he said - you’ve heard it all before.
He lives with that poison in his head like a weeping canker sore.

No, the part I want to focus on is the decent Gala folk
Who heard and did not just walk on but challenged how he spoke:
The lass who told him to shut his face, the one who checked I was okay,
The lad who chased him from the place, the man who made him go away.

And the little girls, just about eight, who ran up when he’d fled,
‘We want to say that you look great, so don’t be sad’ they said.
A good place to conclude this tale if a…

120

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Today, we begin sharing our shortlisted poems and the first is… The Mo(u)rning After Old Town Pride by Gwenhwyfar Ferch Rhys “while mind made off with spreath of thoughts of how this war become so cultured…”

we’re (g)reiving down the Tweedbank line
through all the cows we could not capture: you,

gala-bound beneath your helm of lais, entire outfit battle-worn:
your winged eyeliner twinned with Jedburgh
staves spattered in glitter dry-blood brown
as the shunt-together-colour of all paraid’s detritus.

And I, so transparent then I’m visible only in reflection -
some bloke’s face a distant shaving in the haft-maker’s-workshop sky -
while mind made off with spreath of thoughts
of how this war become so cultured,
finding the culprit in the raiding plans I’d mustered in my notebook
and diagrams of hacked up kinship groups all convoyed round
this poem. I was already gearing out to storm your inbox later.

And later, you’d retaliate and force a feuding sequence.
But all there was in the Borderlands between us then
was how - if not in Rhymer’s prophecy then at least slating up some Day of Truce –
you hoped that one day this countryside would lie half as open-minded
as it lay
yawningly open
that the Tweed valley would meet us, slopes outstretched enough
to drive our Lawless Marches home from Town,
or at least provide some common ground
that we could meet on, weapons down.
And my only doubt about that hope was that you’d still be queer to see it.

For at the age when we did down our arms it was not to bury the hatchet
but plant ourselves into positions where we’re ever crossing (g)lances
where we reive the land between us
‘til there is no field of battle,
‘til skelpt of flesh and plain bereft
of so much more than cattle.

111

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Delighted to present the second of our Runner Up poems… Nae Crowd tae Vanish into by Seb! “The kind of hope that walks wi shakin hauns. The kind of courage that says: I am still here, still staunin. And I am no here alane.”

I. Who’d Hae Thought It?

Borders Pride 2026 – och, who’d hae thought it?
Not the bairn I was.
Not the teenager hiding.
Not the adult still checking the door.
No past version of me could picture this day –
walking open, unhidden, through Galashiels.
No past version of me imagined banners bright as heather,
voices rising where silence used tae stand.
Past me would call it a lie, a trap, a game;
present me still carries that weather in my bones –
aye, but I carry sun there too.

II. No Crowd Tae Vanish Into

I live with the echoes of old days –
the 80s, not gone,
just folded into the haar on the hills.
I live with abandonment, rejection,
the locked door, the lowered voice.
The queer-bashing, the baiting,
the names spat like stones across a close, across a schoolyard, across a toon.
And in the Borders, in the 80s and 90s, there was nae crowd tae vanish into.
A rumour could rin faster than the bus.
A look in the Co-op, a whisper at the bar, a silence at the kirk door –
that could be the whole village passin sentence.
I remember signs on women’s toilets saying no lesbians allowed.
I remember Section 28 – Section 2A here in Scotland –
a law laid like a hand across the mouth
of every teacher who might have said:
you are alright, you are real, you are no alone.
So we learned tae read ourselves in margins, coded words, and glances held a second too long.
I remember friends left tae die from diseases blamed on us for simply being.
I remember HIV and AIDS spoken like punishment, like warning, like proof we deserved the pain.
I remember the papers, the panic, the prayers that sounded more like blame than mercy.
I remember folk dying lonely, and folk living scared tae be touched.
Yet hauns were held anyway. Kettles boiled anyway. Chosen family was made in kitchens, motors, back rooms and borrowed halls.
I remember hope in the 2000s, green as new fields after rain,
only to see it cut back again.
I mind being attacked for who I loved.
In my teens and twenties, I was ordered tae be normal, dress normal, act normal,
towing the line like a single road over moor and moss.
wearing the mask tae stay safe, though I was dying inside.
Telt tae stop being an embarrassment,
tae stop bringing shame tae the family by being who I am.
Told I need tae change my whole name, surname too,
if I wanted tae live visible in my truth.
Made straight, or made quiet,
which is another kind of vanishing, another way tae be buried while breathing.

III. Lanterns

But there were nights when a phone line, open only a couple of evenings a week, felt like a lantern on a black Border road.
And there were days when Edinburgh was oor only freedom –
a place tae disappear and, somehow, be seen.
That took courage.
No the loud kind, always –
sometimes the wee courage of breathing,
of staying,
of keeping one bright ember alive,
cupped in both hands against the wind.
That was courage too:
no just marching when the sun was oot,
but staying alive through the years that tried tae make us disappear.
Courage was keeping your number hidden, your letters folded deep in a drawer.
Courage was takin the last bus hame and hoping naebody guessed where you had been.
Courage was loving quietly in a place where quiet was sometimes how you got by.
When these streets, these villages, these farm roads and market squares were no safe for the likes of us,
we had tae fit in, wear the mask,
let the “aye been” keep us wee, keep us shamed, keep us still.
I could not let Seb exist until my late forties –
and I could not love freely until my late thirties,
even then, saying it safely, loving someone they said I should not.
And still – hope.
Not soft hope. Not easy hope.
The kind of hope that walks wi shakin hauns.
The kind of courage that says: I am still here, still staunin.
And I am no here alane.

IV. Thegither

But look at us now —
gaun doun the High Street,
makin for the Volunteer Hall,
carrying colour through a mill toon
that has seen wool, rain, resilience, and return.
The Tweed keeps moving below the hills –
carrying what was hidden, silvering what survived.
The Eildons stand like three auld witnesses above Melrose.
The ruined abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh hold their broken arches open tae the sky,
teaching us what is damaged can still be sacred,
what is weathered can still stand, and what stands can still sing.
From Ettrick to Yarrow,
from Peebles to Hawick,
from Selkirk to St Abbs,
the Borders has aye been a place of crossings –
burns crossed, roads crossed, borders crossed, lives crossed.
So let us cross this one thegither.
Let the Cheviot wind carry oor names.
Let the fields, the forestry, the sheep tracks,
the village halls, the market towns and quiet glens ken we are here.
The fight is not over.
The fog still rolls in through politics, law, media, health and fear.
The hate-filled voices are loud just now –
claiming rights over oor truths, oor bodies, oor lives.
Still, we can hold true.
We can be shield and voice, shelter and song.
We can protect, advocate, support and empower one another –
allies and freends, near and far.
We can speak across the valleys.
We can share light across the rural dark.
We can remember there is naething wrong wi us.
There never was.
And on this first Borders Pride,
beneath the wide Border sky,
we do not ask permission tae belong.
The Tweed kens us.
The hills hae heard us.
We belong because we are here – and we are here, thegither.

100

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Presenting the first of our Runner Up poems, Here Comes Pride by Chris Rainbeau! “Let there be no hate. No malice. No shame.”

Here Comes Pride
Chris Rainbeau

I once was a boy,
Or ‘Puff’ as they called me.
With the biggest of secrets.
And nobody knew…

And I played with dolls.
And I brushed ponies’ hair.
And I sang “I’m Coming Out!”
And nobody knew…

And I hid in the classroom.
And I avoided the halls.
And I skipped lots of lessons.
And nobody knew…

And I ran home from school.
And I cried from the bullies.
And I lied to my parents.
And nobody knew…

Yes, the secret I held,
Was the biggest of all.
Then I realised,
Everyone knew.

Then one day they said, “Here comes Pride!”

And I wanted to laugh,
Not because it was funny.
But because,
I’ve always been here.

We didn’t arrive with the bunting,
Or the rainbow flags on the street.
We arrived long before,
(with a gasp or a SNAP!)
We’ve always been here.

In the fields. On the trails.
In the schools. On the trains.
Walking dogs,
Holding hands,
On the beach.

We’ve always been part of this landscape,
Just edited from the postcard.

And a place like The Borders?
Well, surely too quiet…
Too rural, too quaint,
For stories such as ours.

But silence isn’t absence.
Our mouths were just filtered,
And paused.

And a look,
Or a whisper,
To people you trust.

But no longer.

So when they say,
"Here comes Pride."
I say, "Oh, how exciting!"
But I think, "It's about bloody time."

About bloody time…
Our young people,
See someone like them, And take pride.

About bloody time… Rainbow flags are hoisted,
And pluses are welcomed,
Not shunned.

About bloody time… Our partners, our love, Can be displayed,
In the place we belong.

The Eildon hills have watched us grow. The Tweed river has carried our secrets. The wind has always known our names.
Now the town gets to hear them too.

And if you're starting to wonder,
Why we still need Pride…
It's because in some far-away places,
Death will come if you choose not to hide.

So let there be no hate.
No malice.
No shame.

Here's to our very first Pride.
A beginning but also an end,
Of pretending we were never here.

We’ve always been here.

This town has always been yours.
It's just taken a bloody long time.

110

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

Presenting our FIRST PLACE WINNER…. Your/Grandad’s Kilt by Adi Novak!

Your/Grandad’s Kilt

you put on your/grandad’s kilt
& possibility settles into your knees
held in each proud sprouting leg hair
a scratching weighty warmth unwashed, overlong, hanging
earthy moss pleats & a compression tank
high fashion, genderful

you’ve put on your/grandad’s kilt backwards
& go to google, shamefaced
picking up memory scraps from pixel flickers
that tell you to gather, turn, secure;
your grandad holds his fish on the mantle

you put on your/grandad’s kilt
dyke scrambling & spinning
a james mark 2
scouting for other bois

your/grandad’s kilt
tightens you, belly close.

1143

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 29/08/2026

What a wonderful, WONDERFUL day at the first ever Scottish Borders Pride! I was so pleased to see so many of you there, and to be able to announce our winners. If you missed it, these are:

First place: Your/Grandad’s Kilt - Adi Novak

Runners Up:

Here Comes Pride - Chris Rainbeau

Nae Crowd tae Vanish Into - Seb

100

Reposted by Borders Pride Poetry

The Wedale Bookshop @wedale-bookshop.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

We are proud to be sponsoring this competition but don’t envy the judges hard task of choosing the winner. The entries are thought-provoking, heartfelt and, in the current political climate, more important than ever. Good luck to all the entrants!

043

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

DRUMROLL PLEASE…. We are delighted to announce the shortlist for the first ever Borders Pride Poetry Competition!

The Borders Pride Poetry Competition 2026

Shortlist

It isn’y Halloween - April Golightly

Your/Grandad’s Kilt - Adi Novak

Here Comes Pride - Chris Rainbeau

The Mo(u)rning After Old Town Pride - Gwenhwyfar Ferch Rhys

Nae Crowd tae Vanish Into - Seb

A Girl in the City, Another on the Edge - Wiccaspellrose

175

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Over the next couple of days, our admins will be contacting the shortlisted poets from our competition - and we will be announcing the shortlist publicly at the end of the following week. It has been a real honour and privilege to read these poems and picking a shortlist was incredibly hard.

100

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

THE BORDERS PRIDE POETRY COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED. We would like to extend a huge thank you to all our entrants, and to everyone who has advertised the competition, liked and shared our posts, or otherwise supported us. So: What happens now?

111

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Our poetry competition is now CLOSED. A huge thank you to all our entrants!

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Last day to send us your poems! Our competition closes at midnight tonight. forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

012

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 30/07/2026

Our poetry competition closes TOMORROW at MIDNIGHT! Send us your entries before then!

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Only a few more days to enter our free poetry competition! Entries close at midnight on Friday 31st! forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

Today’s post and prompt is about the way that Pride contains an aspect of mourning and grief. Sorry to bring down our usual cheerful and celebratory tone, but in light of the events in Berlin, we felt it necessary.

To live with Pride is to live with mourning, too. Grief in the LGBTQ+ community can take many forms.

🌹Grief for the years we have lost, not living our true lives 🌹

🌹Grief for those lost to bigotry and prejudice🌹

🌹Grief for the relationships we have lost by embracing our true selves🌹

🌹Grief at seeing our hard-won rights challenged or stripped away🌹

110

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

It’s Friday! And that means we’re entering the last week of the Borders Pride Poetry Competition. If you’re stuck, here are some prompts about Pride in the Borders! Entry form here or to borderspridepoetry(at)gmail(dot)com: forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

Is there conflict between being part of your local community, and part of the LGBTQ+ community?

Is the experience of being LGBTQ+ in the Borders one of difference or of acceptance? Or a mix?

What was your journey to being proud of yourself and your identity?

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 22/07/2026

Our judge, Gray Crosbie, on poems and poets that inspire them: “One of the reasons I believe poetry is amazing is because it comes in so many different forms and styles. As a teenager, I was obsessed with Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe, Edwin Morgan….

100

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

NEW CLOSING DATE: Midnight on 31st July! Borders Pride Poetry competition is extending its submission period until the end of the month. To enter you must be part of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and live in the Scottish Borders. Entry form here: forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

113

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 10/07/2026

The countdown has begun! Just 10 days left to enter our poetry competition, so let’s introduce our judge: Gray Crosbie is a neurodivergent, queer, working class poet. They mostly write spoken word poetry, and perform regularly at cabaret nights, poetry events and festivals. graycrosbie.com

graycrosbie.com

home

100

Reposted by Borders Pride Poetry

Theta Sigma @doomedrider.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

Scottish Borders Pride is taking place in Galashiels in just under 2 months. Save the date - 29th August, bring your friends, and if you’re on FB, sign up for updates! www.facebook.com/share/16zWi4...

A fabulous drag queen stands, arm raised, dressed all in black. She is framed by rainbows. The text reads, “Introducing your host: Clementina. Scottish Borders Pride. 29th August 2026”

131

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 30/06/2026

#PrideMonth is coming to an end, but we’re not stopping! The first ever Borders Pride is on August 29th, and for that we want your poems! Give us your joy, your fear, your love stories and your heartbreak! Submit by our Google form by 20th July. forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

forms.gle

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 20/06/2026

Wonderful time at Edinburgh Pride! Hope everyone there had a great day.

011

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 15/06/2026

Remember, our poetry competition is free to enter, and open to all LGBTQ+ folk in the Scottish Borders. You can enter here: forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

A view of Gala Hill on a bright but cloudy day.

012

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 11/06/2026

Brenda Shaugnessy in “Gay Pride S.F. 1996” writes of the electric thrill of love, intimacy, and Pride, capturing the buzz of outness and secrecy. Thirty years later, what will you write for Borders Pride 2026? Our competition closes 20th July. www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/91498/...

badly. Knowing that being
fierce and proud and out and
loud was just a bright new way
to be needy. Please listen to me, oh

021

Reposted by Borders Pride Poetry

The Wedale Bookshop @wedale-bookshop.bsky.social · 01/06/2026

June is LGBTQI+ Pride month. With the politics of hate on the rise, there’s never been a more important time to act together. Why does Pride matter? Hate has no place in a decent society. Pride is a protest. Join us and take a stand.

Pride button badges on the bookshop counter.

062

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 25/05/2026

Stumbled upon this poem on Facebook and had to share it - even though it is a little outside our remit, being neither LGBTQI+ nor Scottish: It Happens Like This, but American poet James Tate: poets.org/poem/it-happ...

poets.org

It Happens Like This

I was outside St. Cecelia's Rectory

110

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 24/05/2026

If you: - Live in the Scottish Borders, - are 12 or older, and - are any part of the LGBTQI+ spectrum…. We want your poetry! Free #PoetryCompetition Full rules and entry here: forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1y...

forms.gle

010

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 22/05/2026

Friday’s the perfect day to get started on your submissions for the Borders Pride Poetry competition. Why not take inspiration from Elizabeth’s Bishop’s One Art? www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/47536/...

111

Reposted by Borders Pride Poetry

The Wedale Bookshop @wedale-bookshop.bsky.social · 18/05/2026

To celebrate the first Scottish Borders Pride in August this year there is a #poetry competition open to LGBTQ+ folk living in the Borders. Closing date 20th July! @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social

032

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 12/05/2026

Does anyone know any businesses in the Borders who’d be willing to put up a flier for us?

000

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 05/05/2026

The theme we’ve chosen for our competition this year is Pride in the Borders. Any interpretation of the theme is valid - we want your struggles and your triumphs, your love stories and your heartbreaks, anything that shows us what it is to live in the Scottish Borders as an LGBTQ+ person.

121

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 30/04/2026

We are proud to launch the inaugural Scottish Borders Pride Poetry competition! This competition is open to everyone aged 12 or over, who lives in the Scottish Borders, and is LGBTQ+. The competition is now open to entries on the theme of Pride in the Borders.

Flier for the poetry competition. Text: Scottish Border’s Pride Poetry Competition 2026
‘Pride in the Borders’
Facebook: borderspridepoetry
Bluesky:
@borderspridepoetry.bsky.social
CLOSING DATE 20th July 2026
To celebrate the inaugural Borders Pride, we are inviting you to send your poems about being
LGBTQ+ in the Scottish Borders, and what that means to you.
The competition is open to everyone aged 12 and over who lives in the Scottish Borders,
and is LGBTQ+.
The winning and shortlisted poems will published on the Border’s Pride social media pages,
with the winner and runner up awarded prizes and certificates at Borders Pride on 29th August
2026, where the winning poems will be performed.
First Prize in each category is a £50 book token, with two runners up prizes of a £10
book token.
The categories are Adult (18+) and Youth (12-18).
A full list of rules and entry requirements can be found on our website and social media
pages. https://forms.gle/oHTdQVQhKY1ySwut5, @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social and
Borders Pride Poetry on Facebook.
Judged by performer and spoken word poet Gray Crosbie.
To enter, please visit our website or scan QR code:
Sponsored by The Wedale Bookshop, Stow

There is also an image of the Borders Pride and The Wedale Bookshop logos, and a QR code.

21910

Borders Pride Poetry @borderspridepoetry.bsky.social · 29/04/2026

Hello! We are a small poetry competition set up as part of the inaugural Scottish Borders Pride this August for LGBTQI+ folk in the Scottish Borders. Competition opening soon, more details will follow!

044