LOCAL POET PAYS TRIBUTE TO WILLIE COBURN
26th July 2016
Poet Jim C Mackintosh, who is also a Saints season ticket holder, has written this poem on Willie Coburn:
'The Apostle's Tale'
the steel tube, the barrier chest height, big people behind me buzzing in the restless wait the pitch close enough to smell the damp air of expectation close enough to cling on to
the Saints in Europe SV Hamburg, SV Muirton we would see legends that night we'd be in the presence of legends
did we know then? they'd shape our memories placing bookmarks
into the fold of scarves into faded programmes into dog eared stories into the ears of our children
not of Hamburg legends but of
Donaldson, Lambie, Coburn …
the first words of an apostle's tale you know the rest … the test to membership of being a Saintee forever, and now more so to pause at the end of the words
Donaldson, Lambie and Coburn … Willie Coburn
we don't choose legends they choose us we do not own the future it chooses us
we own the past, we shaped and just sometimes, we realise the pitch is further away than we remember, the team is a wee bit lop sided, down to ten and a legend has passed, down the left
he will live longer than the final whistle longer than the passions of our quickened days but for now, he defends the corner of our past, shaped with a broad smile and a loyal heart
Donaldson, Lambie, Coburn … Willie Coburn a legend forever