Who's he?

This is cool. For me at least.

I wrote and revised some poems late last year and early this year. I self-published my short collection — Something That Comes Close — in March 2025.

Dougie the day he received his author's proof to check

For a self-published, first poetry collection by a Scottish Australian unknown writer it’s doing OK on Amazon. But I’m not going to get rich and retire on the proceeds. And neither Lee Child nor J. K. Rowling need worry that my wee book will displace them from any bestseller chart. Anywhere. Ever.

But …

I sent my book to the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh. I asked that their internal panel that reviews self-published poetry books consider accepting mine into its catalogue of Scottish poets. And I learned today that they did.

This makes me happy: the Scottish Poetry Library acquired my poetry book on 23 July 2025. Can you believe that? I can’t.

Their online catalogue describes my “Subjects” thus:

Subject(s): Australian poetry | Disabilities | Love | Death of a loved one | Emigration and immigration | Mythology, Greek

I regard this as official confirmation. I am a Scottish poet.

There is Robert Burns (of course) and Hugh MacDiarmid, Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy, Norman McCaig, Liz Lochhead … the list of magical poets goes on and on and on.

And somewhere in the same catalogue there is the end of the spectrum better known as … "not actually terrible poems". That’s where you can now find me and mine.

I’m chuffed.

To celebrate, here’s another short poem from my book.

Autoscopy

It seems they have a name for it

derived from ancient Greek (of course)

from autós – self

and skopós – watcher

with six typologies

mine’s an ‘oobe’

out-of-body-experience

at a Scottish beach, no less

the dive did not go well

catastrophically not well

in fact

life-threateningly un-well

I found myself

beneath the waves

in fact

I saw myself

autoscoping

(if that’s a word)

me above

watching myself

down below

not swimming

apparently

headless

(although not actually

headless)

but I do recall

my out-of-body-watcher

talking to

his inner-body-self

and saying this:

“if Allen

doesn’t come

to get us soon

your ‘oobe’ friend up here

and me down there

are fucked”.

Something That Comes Close is the debut work of Scottish-born writer Dougie Herd, now living in Australia. Reflections on becoming, on the joy of simple things, on life's hopeful journey. Sometimes sad because life sometimes is. But never despairing or despondent. Cos life's too short.

• Pulse: memory, life and death, loss, dislocation.

• Place: here and there, then and now, home and somewhere else.

• Encounters: the unexpected.

• Foolish Things: some of which are not entirely pointless.

• Waving: the possibility of renewal, the necessity of change, the inevitability of silence.

Words by Dougie Herd. Illustrations by Spike Deane.

Buy your paperback copy at Amazon Books.

Available also on:

• Kindle Store

• Rakuten Kobo

• Booktopia