Domestic flights and foreign affairs: some thoughts on Here and Elsewhere

ABSTRACT Tom Pow (b. 1950) is a well-known Scottish poet and prose-writer, author of 12 poetry collections, 3 radio plays, several childrens’ books, and more. Geographical themes have recurred throughout Pow's work, and he acknowledges being energised by the creative tensions between Here and Elsewhere: between the supposed (but now increasingly doubted) certainties of Here, fixed and enclosed, and the excitements, challenges and threats of Elsewhere, mobile and open. Such matters are explored in different and nuanced ways, through different prompts and sources, in the course of the essay that follows. Pow thereby exemplifies a distinctive kind of ‘applied geography’ that is constantly giving shape to his creative endeavour.