* The Dancers Inherit The Party (1960)
* Glasgow Beasts, an Almanac (1961)
* Thirteen Poems and a Song (1962)
* The Dancers Inherit The Party (1963)
* Poembadge (1964)
* The Sea and The Mirror (1964)
* Concrete Poetry: an international anthology (editor, with Peter Finch) (1967)
* Sixteen Poems (1968)
* Sapphics Against The Grain (1968)
* Edinburgh & The Lothians Environmental Art Association Newsletter (editor, 1970–73)
* The Wild Hawthorn Press (1971–91)
* Little Sparks: a selection from the notebooks (1974)
* Standing Stone: selected poems 1957–1981 (1981)
* Selected Poems (1982)
* Time & Tide's End (1982)
* On Scottish Ground: poems (1983)
* The Dancers Inherit The Party: revised edition (1983)
* Glasgow Beasts: an almanac. Revised and enlarged edition (1985)
* Selected Poems 1963-1983 (1985)
* Thirteen Poems and a Song: revised edition (1985)
* Time & Tide's End: revised edition (1985)
* Stonechats: poems (1986)
* The Wild Hawthorn Press: A Prospectus (1987)
* Scottish & Gallic Poems (1988)
* The Herald Of Free Enterprise (1988)
* Sapere Aude: Know, Dare, Be Silent. Three poems (1989)
* Lapidarium: poems of stone (1991)
* Cloud: poems (1992)
* The Gardens of Adonis (1992)
* Sapere aude: know, dare, be silent (1993)
* New Paths Through The Garden: poems (1994)
* The Eclogues of Virgil (translator, 1994)
* Cloud & The Gardens Of Adonis (1995)
* The Ruins Of Us (1995)
* Selected Poems 1957–1995 (1995)
* On My Birthday: five poems (1996)
* The Rape of the Sabine Women: Titian & Ovid (1997)
* The Eclogues of Virgil (Second Edition, 2001)
* Stones On Stones (2002)
* Cloud: poems (Second edition, 2003)
* Selected Poems (2003)
* Lapidarium: poems of stone (Second Edition, 2004)
* The Rape Of The Sabine Women (Second edition, 2004)
* The Dancers Inherit The Party: revised edition (Second Edition, 2005)
* The Gardens of Adonis (Second Edition, 2005)
* Scottish & Gallic Poems (Second Edition, 2005)
* The Stone Book: poems (2006)
Collected editions:
* Concrete Poetry (with Peter Finch) (1967)
* Outward Bound: selected poems (1980)
* Ian Hamilton Finlay: a visual primer (1982)
* Collected Poems (1984)
* Lapidarium: poems for and about stone (1991)
* Wild Hawthorn: a selection from the work of Ian Hamilton Finlay (1995)
Critical studies and artists' books:
* One Million Years (1967)
* William Blake: a handbook (with Peter Whigham) (1970)
* Scottish Art Since 1900 (with James Burr and Duncan Macmillan) (1972)
* Richard Wilson (1982)
* Little Sparks: a selection from the notebooks (1974)
* Four Stones (with Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy) (1983)
* Little Sparta (1984)
* Little Sparta: sculpture in the landscape (1984)
* Four Stones: stone circle series (with Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy) (1984)
* Five Stone Books (1984)
* Standing Stone: selected poems 1957–1981 (1985)
* Thirteen Poems and a Song: revised edition (1985)
* Scottish & Gallic Poems (1988)
* The Wild Hawthorn Press: A Prospectus (1987)
* Three Poems After Ovid: three engravings by Ian Hamilton Finlay and Robin Gillanders (1987)
* Lapidarium: poems of stone (1991)
* Cloud: poems (1992)
* The Eclogues of Virgil (translator, 1994)
* The Gardens of Adonis (1992)
* Ian Hamilton Finlay: words & stones (1992)
* New Paths Through The Garden: poems (1994)
* On My Birthday: five poems (1996)
* The Rape Of The Sabine Women: Titian & Ovid (1997)
* Stones On Stones (2002)
* Cloud: poems (Second Edition, 2003)
* Ian Hamilton Finlay: The Wild Hawthorn Press (2003)
* Lapidarium: poems of stone (Second Edition, 2004)
* The Rape Of The Sabine Women (Second Edition, 2004)
* The Dancers Inherit The Party: revised edition (Second Edition, 2005)
* The Gardens of Adonis (Second Edition, 2005)
* Scottish & Gallic Poems (Second Edition, 2005)
* The Stone Book: poems (2006)