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Grafts / Takes

This is the title of a collection published in June 1983 in an edition of 300 copies by Mariscat Press, Glasgow; with dust jacket by Alasdair Gray; actually this volume consists of two collections of 20 poems each, bound back to back, e.g. you start with Grafts (or Takes), then turn the book 180° and upside down and read the other collection.

Contents:

Grafts

Resistance
Midwinter
Casts
Albion
Fall
Heaven
Island
Story
Poetry
Beginnings
Encounter
Quest
Geode
Skins
Snorkelling
Trap
Starlings
Remora
French
Testament

Takes

Palo Alto California Undated Reported July 1971
London July 1972
Calne Wiltshire March 1971
Venice September 1972
Glasgow October 1972
Brisbane November 1972
Darmstadt September 1972
Dona Ema Brazil April 1972
Italy Undated Reported November 1972
London November 1972
London August 1972
Walt Disney World Florida October 1972
Andes Mountains December 1972
Reykjavik July 1972
Udal North Uist 1972
Stoke-on-Trent January 1973
New York 1971
London January 1973
Sydney Australia September 1973
London October 1973

The following poems from Grafts were reprinted in:

Selected Poems, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1985, pp. 115-119.

Resistance
Heaven
Story
Remora
French
Testament

The following poems from Takes were reprinted in:

Selected Poems, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 1985, pp. 51-54.

New Selected Poems, Manchester: Carcanet Press, 2000, pp. 53-56.

Dona Ema Brazil April 1972
Darmstadt September 1972
Glasgow October 1972
Andes Mountains December 1972
London January 1973

According to a note by EM on p. 7 in Grafts the poems "are based on fragments from abandoned poems by Michael Schmidt. They grew round the fragments, which were kept intact but might appear in any part of the completed poem. There was no collaboration; I merely used the alien material as if lines (as often happens) had suddenly floated into my head."

A note by EM at the beginning of Takes (p. 7), reads like this: "These poems are based on items of news in papers and magazines. They were written after the publication of Instamatic Poems (McKelvie, 1972), and may be taken as a supplement to that collection."

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