SAT GURU SNOWMAN
Poems by Owen Gallagher

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Owen Gallagher was born in Gorbals, Glasgow, of Irish parents. He lives in London and works as a primary teacher in Southall, Middlesex.

Sat Guru Snowman is an impressively original first collection. Owen Gallagher's evocative poems weave in and out of Southall, Glasgow and Donegal, making connections between people, beyond language and customs, drawing out their common history. They range from Sikh snowmen and a teacher going AWOL, to family life in Glasgow and Ireland where we meet a rain-shaker and visit a hiring fair (where the poet's own father was sold). Owen Gallagher tackles political and social issues using humour, irony and compassion. Some poems are tragic, some are comical, some gently surreal. He has effectively created a landscape which is his own.

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Sat Guru Snowman

Using the infants’ hands as a conveyor belt,
Satnam and Sarwan built a snowman,

packed and stacked each fistful square,
like blocks in an igloo, until it levelled with them,

wrapped a cloth round its head like a bandage
to create a turban, blackened its face with paint,

which dripped and overnight grew a beard of icicles.
They stood like guards, in bomber jackets

and called him Sat Guru Snowman. Next day
the school playground was full of Sikh snowmen.

Some wore top-knots that looked like mushrooms.
Unused Diwali candles lit them at night.

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SAT GURU SNOWMAN
Price £6.95 per copy post free (£4.65 post free to Associate Members)
Cover painting: "Sat Guru Snowman" (1999) by Ian McCabe
Publication: Spring 2001 (50 pages laminated paperback)