Issue 5 • Summer 2009 Absinthe with Eddie There’s an age that people get stuck at. (Some of my schoolfriends were already forty, and still are; others hit adolescence once, and never moved on.) You’re different.You’re younger than when we first met a generation ago. While the rest of us have been taking good hold of the passing years, turning them into something solid and durable around us – to keep the world out and ourselves trapped safely in – you’ve been dismantling Time and Space into words, sounds and silences… Some friends and I paid you a visit recently. Lunch over, you prepared an afternoon tray of glasses and illegal absinthe.You invited us to go on, to give it a try – When I picture you now I picture you smiling: in every poem, you’re offering us the unexpected taste of Life itself – as something altogether new and ours for the having. ‘The grandest possible grand old man’: Edwin Morgan with his Bluebird Adler typewriter
From Unknown is Best: A Celebration of Edwin Morgan at Eighty, edited by Robyn Marsack & Hamish Whyte (Mariscat, 2000)
‘Edwinday’ at the SPL April 27th saw the muchanticipated launch of the new Edwin Morgan Archive at the Scottish Poetry Library. The cheers rang out long and loud, as the scores of people who had assembled to celebrate the opening also marked another special occasion – the 89th birthday of the guest of honour.
of ‘A View of Things’ and praised Morgan’s generosity towards fellow, and especially younger, poets. Later, Morgan cut a cake decorated with lines from his poem ‘The Computer’s First Birthday Card’; ‘many returns happy / many turns happier / happy turns remain’, and Edinburgh Makar Ron Butlin toasted him as ‘the grandest possible grand old man’.
As Edwin Morgan pointed out, few people are ever in a position to open their own Archive (‘usually you are dead when you have that’). But Scotland’s National Poet was in fine form as he took a tour of the specially converted basement area, in the company of Minister for Culture Mike Russell, friends Hamish Whyte and Liz Lochhead, his publisher Michael Schmidt of Carcanet Press, and Julie Johnstone and Robyn Marsack of the SPL. When the time came to pay tribute to Morgan, Mike Russell was moved to throw away the speech that had been written for him, speaking instead of Morgan’s compassion for people who find themselves in the most terrible circumstances and taking the opportunity to read from one of the ‘Glasgow Sonnets’, appropriately referring to Ministers at Whitehall. Glasgow Poet Laureate Liz Lochhead gave a bravura reading
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and Ian Hamilton Finlay, meaning the Archive will immediately be used for creative and collaborative research. Vividly illustrating the breadth and variety of Morgan’s writing and its context, the EMA is full of surprises – as might be expected from a poet whose work consistently breaks new ground. One visitor said of it: ‘The word “archives” conjured in my mind ancient, large and dusty tomes. The reality was far more contemporary, “bite-sized” and varied than I had imagined.’ In keeping with the SPL’s vision that the EMA should be accessible to everyone who wants to see it, there are plans for a touring exhibition. Meanwhile scans of selected items can be viewed online at edwinmorgan.spl.org.uk, where lessons plans for teachers can also be found.
Morgan’s friend, publisher and biographer Hamish Whyte, who collected the Archive material over a period of 30 years before it was acquired by the SPL, said he was happy it could now be used by all: ‘no longer just mine, but everyone’s Archive’. He was particularly pleased by the announcement of a PhD position, supervised by the SPL in partnership with the University of Edinburgh and concentrating on the concrete poetry of Morgan
– Ron Butlin
The acquisition and development of the Archive was made possible by the financial support of the National Lottery through the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Binks Trust, the National Fund for Acquisitions, and the Friends of the National Libraries. Much planning and months of labour went into transforming our basement office space, and it now holds the most significant and accessible collection of Morgan’s work in print and other media: a real treasure trove, for everyone to discover.
Ron reflects on the absinthe afternoons that inspired the poem above… When Edwin Morgan still lived in his Whittingehame Court flat overlooking the Great Western Road, he would sometimes play host to a handful of us Edinburgh Boys. Myself, Iain Banks, Ian Rankin, Brian McCabe, Andrew Greig and Ken McLeod would, from time to time, toddle across the Great Divide to Glasgow. Having stopped off at a supermarket on the way, we’d arrive with plastic bags bulging with salami, pre-cooked chicken, cheeses, pork pies, smoked salmon, olives, baguettes, minimal salad and no fruit. Eddie provided the wine. Lashings of it. On one memorable occasion he brought out a bottle of absinthe which he’d acquired, ‘mail order, from a Czech gay magazine’. We were impressed. He demonstrated the ritual of its preparation involving sugar cubes, a special spoon, water and glasses. The Green Fairy beckoning, he invited us to get stuck in. Which we did – and some of us have never looked back since. The rest of that day became a blur of serious conversation, brisk argument, noholds-barred gossip and fun! We got the last train home, I think. It had been a perfect afternoon-evening-night with a truly lovely man who is also our country’s finest poet. Like his work, Edwin Morgan is a unique blend of erudition, wit and playfulness. No wonder he is so cherished by everyone who knows him, and his work is so appreciated all over the world!
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a few words… greedy and quick…
These are a few of our favourite things … Hamish Whyte
Curator of the EMA
Collector of the EMA
My current favourite item in the Archive is one of the smallest. Measuring just 4cm by 11cm, it’s a wee low tech pamphlet published in Ohio by d. a. levy as part of his renegade press ‘Polluted Lake’ series. It contains just one poem, ‘Scotch Mist’, by Morgan. Each soft-papered folded page contains only one line of the poem: a scene set using a few words (FIRTH ROCK BUOY GULL BARGE FIRTH). Gradually, as one turns the pages, the word HAAR creeps in, replacing each word of the line one at a time, until… all we see and read is fog. I love small books like this, a little rough around the edges, books that show us the simple possibilities that can be utilised to create a refreshing and satisfying reading experience. What I love about Morgan is that he embraced such a wide range of publishing possibilities.
Lisa Murphy Archivist, EMA
Robyn Marsack Director of the SPL Given that one of his most famous poems is ‘The Computer’s First Christmas Card’, it’s surprising to find that Morgan didn’t use a computer to type up his work. The typewriter ruled, and it’s from the black-and-red ribbon that our designers took their cue for the Edwin Morgan Archive print and web pages. We have Morgan’s elegant Bluebird Adler, steel blue and compact, as an element of the archive. I copy-edited some of his books for Carcanet Press, so seeing the typewriter brings back memories of his typewritten pages, everything delivered very neatly.
While the typewriter face is distinctive (quite different from Iain Crichton Smith’s, for example), the individuality of the poet is revealed in his
handwriting. The EMA has plenty of examples, although it isn’t a manuscript archive. One of the divisions in the book world is between those who do and those who don’t write in their books. Morgan does. He is a sharp-eyed proofreader (not all writers are) and he carefully corrected mistakes in his publications. Sometimes he makes comments or notes in the margin of prose books. He dedicates copies of books, writes postcards to Hamish Whyte, with his swash signature. I’m no graphologist, so I wouldn’t care to analyse the elements of his handwriting. My impression is that it’s at the Italic end of the spectrum, growing more spiky with age, considered but dashing. (It’s reproduced on a bookmark, available at the SPL.) And I particularly like the form of initials he developed, often found on the rarer items in the Archive or the Ian Hamilton Finlay collection Morgan donated to the SPL. It’s Japanese in its spare strokes, but also playful, in tune with the concrete poetry. In his youth, the possibility was floated that Edwin Morgan should work in the design department of the carpet manufacturer Templeton’s. This interest in colour and pattern has always been evident in his choice of shirts, and the control of form is evident in the handwriting. Its shapes personalise and animate many Archive items, a happy reminder of the living hand on the printed page.
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Signs and wonders
Julie Johnstone
I’ve a soft spot for the wee book I made in May 1982 of the nine one-word poems written for Ian Hamilton Finlay’s magazine Poor. Old.Tired.Horse in 1967 (example: ‘The Dear Green Plaice – Glasgow’). For some reason the poems had not been collected into a larger volume (they still haven’t) and I liked the minimalist idea, so I decided to make a minimal booklet of them. I was on holiday on Arran, with my portable Olympia 200 typewriter – I typed the poems, trimmed the pages, stapling them into a card cover and pasting a title label on the front.
My friend Kevin McCarra and I had just started Mariscat Press to publish poetry, so I gave the booklet that imprint to convey a spurious importance and produced a truly limited edition – three copies, one for Kevin, one for Eddie and one for myself – each individually typed and bound. Very indulgent!
Ken Cockburn Project Co-ordinator, EMA This was a rediscovery for me, as I have a copy but hadn’t looked at it for years. The cover is like a school jotter, matte blue card with three printed straight lines, on which the title and credits have been handwritten. The contents are several poem ‘fragments’, each just a few lines long, by the Hungarian poet Attila József (1905–1937), and translated by Edwin Morgan. ‘Up like a rocket and down like the stick – / a poet’s love is greedy and quick’, runs one. They have been handwritten and illustrated (all in blue) by John Byrne. Of the hundreds of items in the Edwin Morgan Archive the one that stands out for me is The South Sea Britherhood: A Poem from the Fort Baskerville Golf Club. It’s a handbound work with deckled edges and interesting illustrations printed on hand-made paper. Published by David Hamilton’s Partick Press, it includes a spoof poem about golf by Morgan (which had me fooled at first). Using the names of different fonts common in the printing industry it makes a clever play on words. Besides being a handsomely bound work, its charm lies in the poem itself and the foreword, as well as Morgan’s handwritten note in one of the Archive’s copies, which are all great examples of the poet’s sense of humour.
There is a lovely verve and spontaneity to it all, as if it’s been dashed off over the course of an afternoon. A separate, typeset sheet gives the work a wider context, with extracts from József’s letters, giving his striking thoughts on poetic language – ‘I used to write my poems with the gravity of the commander of a firing-squad’ – as well as on love, transformation and (his own, impending) death.
The annual Callum Macdonald Award for poetry pamphlets brought in entries with a range of intriguing titles, as the shortlist shows: Hinkum Clinkum, by Sheena Blackhall, published in Aberdeen by Malfranteaux Concepts; Hope/Truth by Priscilla Chueng-Nainby, published in Edinburgh by Lemongrass Hut; Ring O’Sangs by Mary Johnston, published in Bonnyrigg by Poetry Monthly; The Flood, by Alistair McDonald, published in Dunoon by Classical Head Press; Postcards from the Hedge by Hugh McMillan, published in Dumfries by Roncadora Press (the winner); Slaughtering Beetroot, by Angela McSeveney, published in Edinburgh by Mariscat Press; Sky Blue Notebook from the Pyrenees by Jayne Wilding, published in Dunbar by Calder Wood Press.
The Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust (in association with the Scottish Arts Council) perhaps need a snappy acronym next time round – we hope these sponsors will stick with it – so that it will trip off the tongue and get these valuable book awards properly recognised. The poetry shortlist this year was: Robert Crawford’s Full Volume (Cape), Jen Hadfields’s Nigh No-Place (Bloodaxe), Frank Kuppner’s Arioflotga (Carcanet), and Tom Pow’s Dear Alice (Salt), which won the category.
Sign of the times: the difficulties facing Salt, an enterprising publisher which has added several Scottish poets to its list recently, along with Pow and Alexander Hutchison, Scales Dog: New and Selected Poems, Rob Mackenzie’s The Opposite of Cabbage and Andy Philip’s The Ambulance Box. At the time of writing, Salt was saying how much it would help if every poetry reader bought one title: those are four good ones for starters.
Shakespeare’s sonnets survive in only 13 copies of the first edition, published by Thorpe in 1609. Clinton Heylin, the author of the new book So Long as Men Can Breathe:The Untold Story of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, suggests that just as Bob Dylan’s basement tapes were never intended for a wide audience, neither were Shakespeare’s sonnets. ‘In both cases, they were killing time and at the same time dealing with huge personal issues in a private way, which they never conceived of coming out publicly,’ Heylin says. A consolatory thought, perhaps? Or at least a long view.
A literal sign – or rather, plaque – has gone up on Drummond Street to commemorate George Davies introducing Hugh MacDiarmid to Sorley Maclean at what was then Rutherford’s, in 1934. A wonderful constellation of talents!
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singing even then… brakes, glue, contrary winds…
From the Director
Reprints & Revivals
There are plenty of things to celebrate in this issue of the Poetry Reader, and I like to accentuate the positive.
Frank Kuppner on the titles he’d like to see back in print.
The 25th anniversary of the SPL, the opening of the Edwin Morgan Archive, the appointment of Carol Ann Duffy as Poet Laureate, the BBC’s spring poetry season, Seamus Heaney’s 70th birthday...
It would be distinctly excessive to suggest that I spend much time deep in contemplation, whether anguished or otherwise, about out-of-print poets, presumably dead, who might deserve to be republished – I seem to have enough problems of my own in that general area to keep myself occupied – and, for tedious technical reasons, your kind invitation to contribute to the Reprints & Revivals column did not reach me until shortly before the proposed deadline, so my initial impulse was merely to thank you for the friendly thought and let it go. However, it crossed my mind just in time that there might be a welcome opportunity here for me to offer a more or less off-the-cuff vote of thanks for a slim but often brilliant body of work which massively impressed and delighted me in my late teens; which pretty much since then has always seemed to me to be oddly under-appreciated; and which, if nothing else, brings back to me with great and touching keenness the feeling of exhilaration and energy and almost infinite potential-in-waiting of those now so alien years of irrational (not to say, insane) optimism – (pre-Internet, prePC, even pre-decimal coinage! was I really alive then?) – before mere sardonic reality began to do its usual grind-you-down stuff with (to not quote Hopkins) the brakes, glue, contrary winds, indifference and nail-file.
On 20 May, the BBC marked the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s sonnets, dropping 14 of them into the Radio 3 day. Once I’d got past the feeling that I was listening to Gandalf, and tuned into McKellen/ Shakespeare, it was a treat to hear them at unexpected intervals. I wish radio would do that more often, instead of squeezing it all into ‘Poetry Please’, as a way of surprising people who aren’t already poised for poetry and might be amused, provoked, consoled by poems. We can think of dozens of wonderful sonnets from the twentieth century, some of them by Edwin Morgan and Seamus Heaney of course, and one of the most popular of recent times, ‘Prayer’, by Carol Ann Duffy. The discipline of those fourteen lines brings out the best in many poets – others, to take Blake and Whitman as random examples, never engaged with it. Some people might say that the formal constraint necessarily involves artificiality, that the poetry they like is untouched by such considerations, has to be ‘the spontaneous overflow of powerful emotions’. But that underestimates a good poet’s ability to deliver powerful emotions within formal constraints. No one reading Gerard Manley Hopkins’s ‘terrible’ sonnets could be in any doubt that a living, complicated soul is speaking to us: ‘I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.’ There’s a way Morgan described concrete poems that also applies to his Glasgow sonnets: ‘In poetry you get the oyster as well as the pearl, and the pursuit of purity is self-defeating. The best visual poems, as it seems to me, acknowledge this fact inversely; their anatomy may be rigid and exoskeletal, but there is something living and provocative inside.’ The ten Glasgow sonnets have precisely that element of provocation inside their precise form. What we respond to in good writing – and good poetry is good writing at its zenith – is its authenticity. It speaks true. This is not to say that it needs a documentary realism, but that it must be true to itself. Poetry is an art to treasure in these difficult days: lean, green, authentic. Fourteen lines are all you need: you can learn those off by heart and carry them anywhere, mull them over, share them. It will be summer by the time you read this, but I want to leave you with something less sunny than my opening, just four lines by Bertolt Brecht, as translated by Edwin Morgan:
When the times darken will there be singing even then? There will be singing even then. Of how the times darken. * If you don’t know where to start, or you want something new, turn to the SPL to find the singing lines you need.
• STOP PRESS • Warmest thanks to those who have responded so generously to our appeal – it’s off to a great start.
Robyn Marsack * From Collected Translations, 1996, reprinted by permission of Carcanet Press
Burns writ large This spectacular Banner is due to be unfurled in the centre of Edinburgh during the Edinburgh Festival in August 2009, and is one of the contributions to ‘Homecoming Scotland’, funded by the Scottish Arts Council.
Scots from all over the world have helped us celebrate Burns’s 250th anniversary this year.
The individual, hand-painted letters will be photographed, positioned and printed ready for the banner to be displayed at 6-8 Market Street. Any letters that aren’t chosen for the ‘Burns Banner’ will be used to make up the remaining verses from Burns’s poem, to be reproduced on the SPL website.
In partnership with artist and designer Stephen Raw, we invited the Scottish Diaspora, and those closer to home, to paint a letter for inclusion in our ‘Burns Banner’: a huge artwork that will display two verses of ‘A Man’s a Man for A’ That’, Burns’s famous declaration of equality and universal brotherhood.
Hundreds of people have already taken part, in schools from Orkney to the Borders, in community groups across the country, at the Scottish Parliament – and including one or two well-known names. Letters have arrived from as far afield as Dubai, San Francisco and Halley Base, Antarctica!
A letter P from Graham at Halley Base
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Indeed, some of it may even be technically still in print. Certainly I remember that, quite a good while ago now, Polygon published a Selected Poems of D.M. Black, and that this happened after I had more than once expressed my enthusiasm for the man’s work (how crucially I can no longer recall, if I ever quite knew) to Polygon’s then leading-light, Peter Kravitz. Indeed, such was my enthusiasm for the early publications (The Educators, The Old Hag and, perhaps most of all, With Decorum – before the poet took a sort of formalexpression, Eastern Religion turn which rather threw me off his track) that I suggested he should announce a multi-volume, chronologically arranged edition of the Collected Poems and at all costs publish Volume One. Not that there wasn’t more to Black’s oeuvre – (long narratives like Notes for Joachim, for instance; and did I just imagine something called Parsifal?) – but I felt that all this early material should be back in print immediately, en bloc, as a matter of some urgency. It reached so many uncanny, difficult-to-access places that were well worth getting to, by means of a technique of dazzling flair and apparently effortless, almost ridiculous panache which reminded me of no-one else. And – though, I suppose, this may only be ignorance and dubious judgement talking – such is still pretty much the case.
For many of the participants, this is the first time in years that they’ve picked up a paintbrush, and a number of them have found it to be quite an emotional experience. For others, their choice of letter has a personal significance – perhaps the initial of a loved one they want to commemorate.
Janice Galloway gives us an A
The Burns Banner will be launched on 6 August; in the meantime, you can follow its progress at www.burnsbanner.wordpress.com
A young artist from Williamston Primary in Livingston
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a special collection… the modern scot…
The Librarian’s desk help us considerably in making sure our collection reflects what is currently being published.
Items from the early days of the SPL, on display earlier this year
The Scottish Poetry Library began with around 300 donated books. It now holds no fewer than 35,000 items. Donations have been extremely important in helping to build up the collection over the 25 years of the Library’s history and we are very grateful to all those who have generously given us books over the years. We still rely on donations but have to be very careful about what we are able to accept. We do now have a comprehensive collection – and
less space! – so donations need to fit with our collection policies, or into some identified gaps. There are specific areas where donations continue to be highly valued by the Library, and some are listed here. New titles – yes please! We welcome donations from poets and publishers of new titles, particularly Scottish titles and European bilingual texts. Donations are often the quickest way new collections reach us and, in turn, reach interested readers. We don’t have the benefit of legal deposit, and we work with small purchasing budgets, so donations of new titles
Best Scottish Poems 2009: get your eligible titles to us Our online anthology, Best Scottish Poems, is now in its sixth year. The editors depend on the librarians here supplying them with the eligible publications to read and letting them know what has been published – whether single book collections or pamphlets, new anthologies or poetry magazines published in the calendar year. It helps us a great deal if Scottish poets, and publishers publishing Scottish poets, get their books to us as soon as they are published, or at least let us know of new publications promptly. Two copies would be ideal, but one would be very helpful. Donations of Scottish titles are very much welcomed for this purpose, and ensure that they are promptly brought to the attention of the editors. Periodicals: some special titles we’re looking for Reviewing the Library’s holdings of 20th century Scottish periodicals, we find there are quite a few gaps which need filling. At the top of the wish list are issues of The Modern Scot, mostly from 1935 and 1936 (it would be wonderful to have a complete run of this!); The Voice of Scotland, mostly Vols I and II; issues of Jabberwock and Gambit. Perhaps rather more attainably, we would be very pleased to receive issues of The Glasgow Review and New Edinburgh Review.
Please get in touch if you have any spare numbers of any of these titles and we will let you know which ones the Library lacks. Concrete poetry: building a special collection We are currently working to build up our concrete poetry collection and are particularly keen to give a good home to concrete poetry anthologies and exhibition catalogues. We have good collections of Ian Hamilton Finlay and Edwin Morgan and are always looking to expand them, as well as extend our collections internationally to all the poets who have worked in this field. And we’d be very keen to acquire a complete run of Poor. Old. Tired. Horse. We’re missing nos. 5-10, 14, 18, 20, and 22. This would be a very concrete way to help us!
‘You may not have books to donate, but perhaps you’d like to make a contribution to the book fund.This would be much appreciated by the librarians here – and, in turn, current and future library users.’
Donations to the book fund You may not have books to donate, but perhaps you’d like to make a contribution to the book fund to help us buy all the books and audio-visual items that we need. This would be much appreciated by the librarians here – and in turn, current and future library users. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss a donation to the library shelves.
Julie Johnstone The SPL online catalogue (INSPIRE) is accessible at www.spl.org.uk
New Scottish titles at the SPL This list collects the Scottish poetry titles that have come to the Librarian’s attention over the last six months.
Robert Burns,The best laid schemes: selected poetry and prose, edited by Robert Crawford and Christopher MacLachlan (Polygon, 2009)
Brian McCabe, Zero (Polygon, 2009)
A.C. Clarke, Messages of change (Oversteps, 2008)
Gordon Meade, The private zoo (Arrowhead, 2008)
Valerie Clarke, Travellers without baggage (Two Ravens, 2008)
A full bibliography is also available on request. We hope you will find this list useful, either for requesting books and pamphlets to borrow from the SPL or in buying them. If you find any titles difficult to track down, or have any other questions, please consult us.
Karen Knight & Dilys Rose, Twinset (Knucker, 2008)
J.O. Morgan, Natural mechanical: being a rendering of the true life stories of Iain Seoras Rockcliffe (CB, 2009)
Advice of forthcoming titles is welcomed, and should be sent to Julie Johnstone at the SPL. Donations of new Scottish titles are also warmly received.
Single collections Norman Bissett, Piercing the darkness, and lanterns and flowers (Poetry Monthly, 2008) Sheena Blackhall, Figurehead and Danse macabre (Lochlands, 2009)
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Diana Hendry, Late love & other whodunits (Peterloo/Mariscat, 2008) Robert Henryson, The Testament of Cresseid & seven fables, tr. by Seamus Heaney (Faber, 2009) John Killick, Dementia diary (Journal of Dementia Care, 2008) Tom Leonard, Outside the narrative 19652009 (Etruscan, 2009) Roddy Lumsden, Third wish wasted (Bloodaxe, 2009) Lorn Macintyre, A snowballl in summer (Argyll, 2009) Rob A. Mackenzie, The opposite of cabbage (Salt, 2009)
Peter Manson, Between cup and lip (Miami University, 2008)
Donny O’Rourke, Blame yesterday: a Broadway suite (Bonny Day, 2009) Andrew Philip, The ambulance box (Salt, 2009) Tom Pow, In the becoming: selected and new poems (Polygon, 2009) Nancy Somerville, Waiting for zebras (Red Squirrel, 2008) James Sutherland-Smith, Popeye in Belgrade (Carcanet, 2008)
Single collections – pamphlets David Betteridge, Needing an opposite (Rhizome, 2008) Irene Brown, Glass slippers (Calder Wood, 2009) Robin Cairns, Last man with sky (Red Squirrel, 2008) Ian Crockatt, Skald:Viking poems (Koo, 2009) Gordon Dargie, A tunnel of love (Ketillonia, 2009) Lillias Scott Forbes, A hesitant opening of parasols (Calder Wood, 2009) Paula Jennings, From the body of the green girl (Happenstance, 2008) Mary Johnston, Fa dis she think she is? (Calder Wood, 2009)
Tim Turnbull, Caligula on ice (Donut Press, 2009)
Keith Murray, The camel’s back (Koo, 2009)
Brian Whittingham, Bunnets n bowlers: a Clydeside odyssey (Luath, 2009)
Catherine Orr, Signs of life (2009) Peter Porter, Shellfish and umbrellas (Koo, 2008)
Richard Price, folded (Hydrohotel/ Essence, 2008) David Purdie, The godothin (Calder Wood, 2009) James Robertson, Hem and heid: ballads, sangs, saws, poems (Ketillonia, 2009) Jayne Wilding, Sky blue notebook from the Pyrenees (Calder Wood, 2008)
Anthologies For Angus: poems, prose, sketches and music, May-July 2008, edited by Richard Berengarten and Gideon Calder (Los, 2009) Crossing the borders: a Scottish sampler (Scottish Writing, 2008, pamphlet) Kin: Scottish poems about family, edited by Hamish Whyte (SPL/Polygon, 2009) Mailboats: playing with wind and tide (Hansel Cooperative, 2008) Nae bad ava!: mair Doric poems, compiled by the Reading Bus (Reading Bus, 2009) New poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect, edited by Robert Crawford (Polygon, 2009)
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a tantalising line… see things afresh…
Carry a poem – join the campaign and share your story! Robyn carries her poem in the back of her diary. Dave’s is on the fridge door, and Jane has hers off by heart. How do you carry yours? We’re searching for people’s most treasured poems – and we need your help. Can you spare five minutes to let us know about a poem that means a lot to you? Perhaps it’s one you learned at school, and still know by heart. It could be a poem that was recited at your wedding, or that offered some consolation at a time of loss. Maybe it calls to mind a particular place that’s special to you, or simply cheers you up each time you read it. You might love your poem for its comforting familiarity, or its ability to unsettle you; because it takes you right inside yourself, or right outside; because it captures the
way you see things, or helps you see things afresh. As part of our ‘Carry a Poem’ campaign, we’re collecting people’s tales about poems that matter to them. We’re encouraging everyone to think about their vital poems and the stories that lie behind them, and we’re keen to learn about the poem choices of people all over Scotland, from all walks of life.
‘You might love your poem for its comforting familiarity, or its ability to unsettle you; because it takes you right inside yourself, or right outside.’ You’ll be able to read and listen to some of these poems and stories on the Scottish Poetry Library website, and maybe even in a publication of some kind. Your choice will strike a chord with people you’ve never met – and perhaps you’ll discover a new treasured poem to carry with you.
Lorraine’s choice I carry all the poems I love inside my head, but sometimes only a tantalizing line leaps out at me – while the rest stays locked up in my memory – so I also keep them in book that I started when I was ten. In that book I write down all the poems that I love, or that puzzle me, so I can read them when I need them – or revisit their mysteries when I’m older and wiser. It is a form of diary, for when I look back at poems copied down years ago I am reminded of the feelings I had, and the reasons that the poem resonated with me at the time. The poem I return to most is called ‘Hurricane Blues’ by Linton Kwesi Johnson. I found it in the Hand in Hand anthology of love poems edited by Carol Ann Duffy. Johnson’s poem recounts a love which ends ‘awftah di pashan a di hurricane’. I love the intensity and pain in this poem, and relish reading it aloud to listen to the many sounds it contains, which take me ‘furdah
Can you help? • If you could only choose one poem to carry with you, what would it be? It can be by any poet, from any country and in any language. • Can you tell us about when you first heard or read your chosen poem? What did it make you think, see or feel? And what does it mean to you now? dan imagineashan ar dream’. Most of all, I find the imagery beautiful and haunting, like the ‘lingahrin pramis af rain’.
Lorraine Simpson is a regular SPL borrrower and a familiar face at our reading groups. Hand in Hand (Picador, 2001) is available to borrow from the SPL, in person or by post.
• Do you already carry it with you in any way – in your wallet, purse or diary? In your head or your heart? Please share your story – email Jane Alexander at marketing@spl.org.uk, or write to us at Carry a Poem, Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DT
25 leaves for 25 years Engraved on our threshhold, ‘by leaves we live’ has been our strapline since 2004.Taken from an essay by philanthropist, teacher and town planner Sir Patrick Geddes, it elegantly encapsulates the notion that poems are the essence of the SPL. In response to these words, a group of gifted artists and writers have joined with us to celebrate our anniversary by donating 25 striking images of leaves, to be displayed in the Library at our annual showcase of small presses and artists books, reproduced as limited edition cards and printed on handy cotton bags, just perfect for carrying home all your borrowed poetry books!
From top to bottom, left to right, our leaves were created by: Brigid Collins (1); Anne Bevan; Norman McBeath; Claire Melinsky; Nicola Murray; Gerry Cambridge; Helen Douglas; Ann Ross; Brigid Collins; (2) Laurie Clark; Julie Lacombe; Sylvia Von Hartman; Iain McIntosh; Jane Alexander; Morven Gregor; Liz Lochhead; Alexander McCall Smith; Mary Hutchison; Stephen Raw (x2;) Jean Johnstone; Rachel Hazell; Holly Hayward; Gail Turpin
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facts and mysteries… row the steady earth…
Getting to know … Seamus Heaney or available artistry. I call that coincidence inspiration. From ‘Markings’: All these things entered you As if they were both the door and what came through it. They marked the spot, marked time and held it open. A mower parted the bronze sea of corn. A windlass hauled the centre out of water. Two men with a cross-cut kept it swimming Into a felled beech backwards and forwards So that they seemed to row the steady earth.
Seamus Heaney at the Edinburgh International Book Festival © Pascal Saez
When a poet does one thing, and does it well, then he or she may well be assured of being remembered. When a poet does two, or more, then larger status may be what time grants. With his first collection, Death of a Naturalist, in 1966, Heaney looked set to become a poet of Irish ruralism, an agrarian poet with an undercurrent of political ominousness. A single book, perhaps just one poem, can make a reputation, at least among those who care for poetry. Poets and readers, though, prefer growth and amplitude. Metropolitan critics often distrust poets who have, or have had, mud on their boots. Or else they adore the loamy atmosphere, the straw-in-thehair, fence-leaning sort of thing. It’s that softly pastoral affection in the
English sensibility, and it’s resulted in fine works of art, music, and literature, although it doesn’t explain much of Heaney or his achievement. Book after book, poem after poem (and he’s now seventy), his work demonstrates an imagination that is simultaneously autonomous and yet attached to recognisable realities. Increasingly, his imagination and powers of perception have become visionary, even mystical; but he also balances the colloquial with the ceremonial, an agreeable speaking voice with the hieratic and elevated, the topical with the eternal, the grievous with the celebratory. Neither modernist, nor postmodernist, Heaney, like some other poets of his generation, has created an individual poetic space with room enough to accommodate the social and the spiritual, facts and mysteries, the quotidian and what can be perceived to be beyond it, the national and the international, the personal and the public, the creative
and the critical. These antitheses all go into a mix that makes Heaney’s poetic identity so distinctive and valorous. His poetry is accessible and accepted. He’s a full-throated poet who doesn’t shout at you. He’s not an aggressive poet; but nor is he a yielding one. In ‘The Harvest Bow’ (in Scotland, it’s called a ‘hairst maiden’) he writes of ‘a knowable corona of straw’ — a broad legato melody, with a wonderful resonance of vowels that lifts off the page like a rhapsodic tune off a musical score. I know critics who suspect that kind of effect in poetry. They see it as too close to artifice, an over-fondled phrase. They miss the point. Such moments in Heaney’s poetry represent potential didacticism or covert ideology dissolving in pure poetic utterance. Poetry emerges from a coincidence of experience with knowledge, imagination, and pre-rehearsed
New at the SPL: Robert Henryson, The Testament of Cresseid & Seven Fables, tr. by Seamus Heaney (Faber, 2009) Seamus Heaney: Collected Poems [Audiobook] (Faber, 2009) Stepping Stones: Interviews with Seamus Heaney, by Dennis O’Driscoll (Farrar Straus Giroux, 2008)
Here, artistry controls the steady rhythm, but is also embodied in the exactness of words used. Neither ‘windlass’ nor ‘cross-cut’ is part of everyday vocabulary. How often do we use these terms? We know what they mean, but it’s as if we’re being reminded of them. And, too, what they’re being used for, probably instinctively — a sensuous alliance of water, wood and earth, an interplay of senses characteristic of his best work. Also, ‘you’ where ‘I’ might have been anticipated indicates a phenomenon many younger poets are slow to learn, but of which Heaney is a master — artistry in poetry depends on syntax, on a surprising way of saying, which is an equivalent of imagination as a surprising way of seeing.
a line of my own) then Heaney’s translation, or ‘writing by proxy’, has resulted in a virtuosic equivalent of a great original masterpiece.
There abides in Heaney’s poetry a sense of an earlier society. It’s more than the wonder-world of his Irish country childhood. He’s been drawn to the heroic and epic, and hence to the Homeric, to Sophocles, to Virgil, Beowulf, Dante, and now Robert Henryson. Having read Henryson many times I fancy I don’t need much, if anything, in the way of glosses. That affable, melodic, tenderly wise voice recycled was likely to turn out a bit of a disappointment, or so I thought. I was wrong. If poetry is translating one’s own language into itself (and I’m committing the sin of quoting
The pull isn’t necessarily to the past or to backwardness. Poetry takes its stand in the eternal, in the continuous, in a benevolent vision; and that, clearly, is at the heart of what he does, which is why I admire Heaney the poet, the critic, and the man.
Those of us who spent much of our childhoods hanging around byres, barns, stables and horses, sly collies, crops, cattle, dairies, and imbibing the seasons of the 1940s and ‘50s, are perhaps most susceptible to Heaney’s poetry, although his deserved popularity suggests that his work is simply canonical in its own time. Just as there’s a ‘lost’ Ireland, there’s a ‘lost’ Scotland, although neither is as ‘lost’ as all that, nor are they forlorn. Convenient technologies and change have a lot to be said for them; and poetry finds it hard to say it.
Douglas Dunn Douglas Dunn’s latest publication is A Line in the Water, 15 new poems with etchings by landscape artist Norman Ackroyd (Royal Academy, of Arts, London, £60.00).
Addressing the bard It was Lorna Irvine, one of our Education Officers, who started it… Could we not commission some contemporary poets to respond to Burns, she wondered idly, and circulate those poems to schools so they’re not stuck in the same old 25-January Burns rut? That was more or less how she phrased it. Soon, the project had grown legs, as they say, and in August secondary schools throughout Scotland will be receiving a class set of the SPL anthology, Addressing the Bard; twelve contemporary poets respond to Robert Burns.
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The book has been edited with characteristic enthusiasm and erudition by Douglas Gifford, and illustrated with panache by Iain McIntosh. We’re grateful for generous support from Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Arts Council, the Scottish Qualifications Authority and the Andrew Dickson Memorial Fund – thanks to them, the book is distributed free, and we have web resources to offer as well. The twelve poets are Meg Bateman, Robert Crawford, Carol Ann Duffy, Matthew Fitt, W.N. Herbert, Jackie Kay, Liz Lochhead, Janet Paisley, James Robertson, Tim Turnbull and Rab Wilson – plus
Seamus Heaney, with his existing ‘Birl for Burns’ [see right]. Each of their poems follows the Burns text to which they responded, and they have also provided short commentaries. These writers have really been inspired by Burns: lyrical, passionate, reflective, uproarious, excoriating… the poems explore so many moods and issues, use such a variety of language, they’re going to be a fantastic classroom resource. From Liz Lochhead’s eloquent, female mouse to James Robertson’s gleeful devil, from Meg Bateman’s extinguished otter to Rab Wilson’s gorgeous Gordon at prayer, there are pleasures for readers of all ages.
From the start, Burns’ birl and rhythm, That tongue the Ulster Scots brought wi’ them And stick to still in Country Antrim Was in my ear. From east of Bann it westered in On the Derry air.
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happily forgotten… the inevitable poetry…
A year in reading Over the past year of being the SPL’s first ever Reader in Residence a lot of people have looked at me with disgust and said, ‘That’s a job now? Reading all day?’ I usually try to explain that, yes, reading poetry eight hours a day would be a pretty good gig and yes, my job is pretty awe-tastic, but it isn’t really about Ryan getting more time to indulge his literary fancies. So, a little round-up for those of you who are wondering just exactly what it is that I do: loosely defined, my goal is to get people reading poems. Through on-line activities, live events, workshops and, sometimes, just talking about things I like, I try to encourage people to enjoy poems without the fear of feeling stupid. On the BBC’s Book Café I was asked if I thought this was a difficult thing and, in particular, if I found getting young people to read poems to be difficult. My short answer was: no. People are fundamentally intrigued by poetry and it is easy to find poetry that is relevant and not utterly archaic. Besides, these mystical Young People that everyone talks about are kind of miserable. So are a lot of poets. It makes sense that
they should find each other. Anyway, the point is, I’ve been trying to get poems into the hearts and hands of people in Edinburgh. Sometimes, this has been done by literally handing out hundreds of poems with the Poetry Army in the Poetry Garden (St. Andrew’s Square) and the National Portrait Gallery. I’ve also facilitated dozens of poetry reading workshops in library branches, cafés and bars throughout Edinburgh. I’ve enjoyed getting loud and helped organise unique events like the SPL’s Noisy Day and The Golden Hour at the Forest where poets, music and film come together in a live and loud assemblage of all things relevant and irrelevant. Also, I’ve been pleased to be involved with the Reel Iraq Festival, bringing legendary Iraqi poets such as Saadi Youseff and Sinan Antoon to Edinburgh for a couple of very special readings in both English and Arabic. Oh, and then there is the newfangled inter-web where you can hear the latest installment of the SPL podcast which features readings, discussions and new music/poetic hybrids. Online we also have a special place called the Reading Room where luminaries like Phil Kay and Amanda Palmer have shared thoughts with us about their favourite poems alongside notable
Reading in bed local figures like Claire Askew, Billy Liar, Mark Francis and Kapka Kassabova.
‘Young people are kind of miserable. So are a lot of poets. It makes sense they should find each other.’ But – enough about the past – in the coming year we’re getting a little more interactive – working on our Carry a Poem campaign (see page five for more on this) and the Global Poetry System. Both are ambitious, communal projects that we hope will remind people how intrinsic poetry is to our daily lives. I’ll also be expanding my work with the Poetry Garden, helping make it an inspiring and original sanctuary in Edinburgh for poetry lovers and random members of the public. Alongside these activities I’ll continue working with heroic producer Colin Fraser on these new popping podcasts. And, of course, I’ll be bringing more events to the SPL and City Library branches. I’ll have workshops at the Edinburgh City Libraries throughout the year and, as always, anyone can drop in to see me at the SPL, from 4-6pm on the first Tuesday of every month.
with
Joyce Caplan I once counted 87 books by my bedside. This ‘cordon-literature’ had of course collapsed and the tally was done during the slow, serendipitous reassembling. I have now found shelving for the dispersal, but still near my bedside for when I feel bereft during the night and need their pages to raft me over into sleep. There is also a deep litter system of TLS and LRB for when a sudden urge prompts a need for re-reading an article about books I know I will never read or dead poets I have happily forgotten.
‘At the moment I am reading a book about cricket, a subject in which I have no interest’ Upon my immediate bedside table I have always the inevitable poetry, a strong reading light and emergency peppermints (the chocolate is hidden behind the alarm clock). At the moment I am reading a book about cricket, Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, a subject in which I have no interest, but it is set in New York, in which I do, and I am finding it riveting and am almost tempted to watch the Test Match but this feeling soon subsides to a mild twitch when the scores come on the news. I read Ashes for Breakfast by Durs Grünbein, accompanied by the morning birdsong, and inhabit his surreal, harsh world before my morning coffee brings me into this one. He is an East German poet of startling originality. Another book, also given to me by my stepson, is Zbingniew Herbert’s Collected Poems, a satisfyingly fat volume that gives many delights and surprises. Compared often to Bishop or Auden, his verse combines the political and the personal with great lyricism and humour. There are of course the unopened books I ought to read that gather dust; the well-worn thrillers (Sarah Paretsky and Henning Mankell) for 3am reading, and books given as borrowings by friends and looked forward to as a future shared pleasure. Recently my bedroom was redecorated and the painter, a pragmatic, phlegmatic Scot, queried the need for ‘all this shelving’. On seeing my stricken look of panic, he stoically painted around the empty shelves. ‘You’ll be keeping the books then.’ For once I didn’t reply. The ineffable Joyce Caplan is due to stand down after six years as Chairman of our Board, and many more years of sterling service to the SPL cause.
Ryan Van Winkle
Kin: the editor’s tale Where would literature be, without the family? It’s the perfect dynamic for exploring relationships both personal and social. Scottish families are surely in essence no different from other families, though coloured perhaps by a culture that still can’t quite escape the clutches of the clan.
When I began selecting poems for Kin I had no agenda of searching for so-called Scottish characteristics – if there were any, I assumed they would emerge by themselves – I just wanted to consider how Scottish poets dealt with family relationships.
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One of the pleasures of compiling an anthology on a narrowly focussed subject is that it means taking a new look at familiar material, seeing favourite authors in a new light. Admittedly, it’s an artificial way of reading literature, but we do like a classified approach, we like to collect and arrange. So the collection is divided into sections: a general one on families as such, then subdivisions by family member: mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers and so on. Some family favourites had to be included – ‘Aunt Julia’, ‘Poem for my Sister’, for instance – but I hope there are some poems not so familiar, such as William Bell Scott’s slightly clumsy but heartfelt sonnet on his mother and Alexander Rodger’s pawky piece on the ineluctable differences between siblings, ‘The Family Contrast’. And I was glad to have a chance to reprint the much underrated Elma Mitchell. I didn’t want to choose just ‘nice’ poems, so there are dysfunctional families (‘Edward, Edward’, Alison Flett’s ‘Lernin’) as well as more functional ones (‘The Cotter’s Saturday Night’, Kathleen Jamie’s ‘Crystal Set’). Mothers generally fare well in the poems (‘Edward’ is the outstanding exception). Most of the poems about fathers were from
the son’s point of view: the father/ son relationship seems to be the most troubling (see, for example, the rather chilling ‘My Faither Sees Me’ by Robert Garioch). I found very few poems by mothers about sons.
Family favourites: Hamish, his mother Alicia and partner Diana Hendry on their personal poem picks
Some poets write more about their family than others: Jackie Kay a lot, Edwin Morgan not so much. Some, like Edwin Muir, write in general terms, most are more personal: writing about one’s father or mother is to write about oneself. What I liked about many of the poems was the way in which they seemed to echo each other, even if generations apart. For example, the ending of Don Paterson’s ‘The Thread’ seems to hark back to Edwin Muir in ‘Childhood’ looking down from a hill on his house and hearing his mother call him. And there are contrasts, such as between Burns’s and Hogg’s attitude to their daughters, affectionate in their different ways (also compare Burns and Byron on their illegitimate children). All families, even the happy ones, are different – which has made, I hope, for a pleasingly diverse collection.
Hamish Whye Editor of Kin
Robert Crawford’s ‘Opera’: A lovely sonnet on the opera/work of poetry and making – the mother ‘pedalling iambs’ on her Singer sewing machine, the schoolboy son ‘wearing her songs’. – Diana Hendry
One of my favourite poems is W.S. Graham’s dream about his father, ‘To Alexander Graham’. It’s intensely moving and, like the best dreams, very visual, slightly mysterious, and articulate of something we may not have told our conscious self. – Hamish Whyte
I’ve picked the old Scots favourite ‘Cuddle Doon’ by Alexander Anderson from Kin, because I learned it at my mother’s knee, not at school; it stuck in my mind and I can still recite it. – Alicia Whyte Kin: Scottish poems about family (Scottish Poetry Library/Polygon, 2009) is available from the Scottish Poetry Library for £9.99
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hot white dust…
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present poets and past makars…
About us
Event highlights
The Scottish Poetry Library is a unique national resource and advocate for the enriching art of poetry, particularly Scottish poetry.
SPL at the Edinburgh International Book Festival:
Our award-winning building in the heart of Edinburgh’s literary quarter offers free reference and lending facilities. Visit us and explore: • over 35,000 items of poetry • an unrivalled collection of contemporary Scottish poetry • a wide range of other poetry • CDs and tapes • poetry magazines • poetry bookshop • resources for teachers • poetry reading groups • readings and events. In addition to our core collection in Edinburgh we maintain 13 Scottish partner collections, located in libraries and arts venues from Dumfries & Galloway to Shetland. Many of our services are also available by post or online at www.spl.org.uk including:
CANONGATE Museum of Edinburgh
.BUS - 35 Crichton's Close
Canongate Kirk
People's Story
ROYAL MILE
St Marys Street
To Castle
New Street
Jeffrey Street
• online bookshop • postal borrowing • online catalogue search and reservation • education resources • ‘lost for words’ poem-finding service • readers’ website with recommendations, reviews, forums and more • Scotlandwide poetry events listings • Friends subscriptions, with benefits including free copy of Poetry Reader and free postal borrowing • full details of our partner collections.
To Holyrood
The Tun
Scottish Poetry Library
HOLYROOD ROAD
Open Monday-Friday 11am-6pm and Saturday 1-5pm 5 Crichton’s Close, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DT T: 0131 557 2876 E: reception@spl.org.uk The SPL is grateful to funders for their support of this publication. Director: Dr Robyn Marsack Chair of Board: Joyce Caplan Honorary Presidents: Seamus Heaney, Liz Lochhead, Edwin Morgan, Derick Thomson
www.spl.org.uk www.readingroom.spl.org.uk Poetry Reader is the newsletter of the Scottish Poetry Library and is sent free to all Friends of the SPL. Our Friends have always been the mainstay of the SPL, from its creation to its future. Friends membership supports the SPL and brings some great benefits including free postal borrowing, discounts on selected events and books, and a subscription to the Poetry Reader. Become a Friend of the SPL for £25, or £15 concession/low-waged – call us on 0131 557 2876 or visit www.spl.org.uk to find out more.
19 August, 8.30pm Michael Russell: Selected Works Find out what inspires Scotland’s new Minister for Culture, as he picks favourite poems in discussion with Robyn Marsack of the Scottish Poetry Library. £9/£7 21 August, 3.30pm Liz Lochhead, Aonghas MacNeacail and Jen Hadfield: Present Poets and Past Makars Three outstanding poets read from their own work, and from past great voices associated with the Scottish Poetry Library, to celebrate its twenty-fifth year. £9/£7 30 August, 4.30pm Revolutionary Europe Marking the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Donny O’Rourke (Scotland), Wojciech Bonowicz (Poland), Michael Augustin and Sujata Bhatt (Germany) and Ioana Ieronim (Romania) present work created under the presiding spirit of Robert Burns. In association with Literature Across Frontiers £6/£4 Please book with EIBF Box Office, 0845 373 5888 www.edbookfest.co.uk
SPL reading groups: Nothing But the Poem Come and read poetry with us this summer in the city – no special knowledge or preparation needed, just enjoy discovering some new poems and sharing new ideas. Led by Ryan Van Winkle, Edinburgh’s poetry Reader in Residence. …at Scottish Poetry Library, Tuesday 7 July, 6.30-8pm; Tuesday 4 August 6.30-8pm; 22 September 6.30-8pm £5/£3 Call us on 0131 557 2876 to book your place. …at Central Library, George IV Bridge Wednesday 8 July, 6.30-8pm Thursday 17 September, 6.30-8pm Free, unticketed …at Edinburgh International Book Festival Thursday 20 August, 11am Thursday 27 August, 11am £12/£10 Please book with EIBF Box Office, 0845 373 5888 www.edbookfest.co.uk
Poetry in St Andrew Square Pick up a poem at lunchtime in the beautiful garden at St Andrew Square, Edinburgh. Whether you’ve got five minutes or a long, lazy hour, our Reader in Residence can find you a poem you’ll love at these drop-in events. Wednesday 8 July, 12-2pm Wednesday 16 September, 12-2pm Free, unticketed
Courtyard readings August 17-22 and 24-29, 2-3pm Want to read your own poems aloud? Come to the Courtyard Readings at the Scottish Poetry Library, and enjoy an hour of poetry, hosted by the School of Poets. Read your own or other writers’ work in any language. Free, non-ticketed
A letter from… Poet Suzanne Steele reports from Afghanistan In 2008, I was chosen as one of five artists nationwide, and the first poet in the 90+ year history of the program, to participate in the Canadian Forces Artist Program (CFAP) as a war artist. For eighteen months I have observed and written about the 1st Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry battalion as they prepare for war. A few weeks ago, I attended live-fire exercises, next week I go to Wainwright, Alberta, to participate in the ‘dressrehearsal’ for war at a Canadian base that has fake Afghan villages and real Afghans. There, I will be embedded once again with the infantry and will have a chance to watch how they continue to prepare. In the autumn of 2009, I will be deploying with Task Force 3-09 to Afghanistan. My war work, some of which can be found online in beta (real-time, unedited, continually developing) at www.warpoet.ca, is the direct result of a single question: what is the colour of Afghanistan’s demon dust? In 2006, after returning from Edinburgh, I read about the death of a young Canadian soldier in Panjawaii district, Afghanistan. My immediate response, as poet and human being, was to write ‘Elegy for an Infantryman’. My first lines: In fields of grape vines and hot white dust – Afghanistan – set the tone. A landscape-based poet, I needed to get the details correct and knew the dust wasn’t white yet I couldn’t tell, from photos or YouTube, its exact colour. I requested to speak with a vet from Afghanistan and received permission from Department of National Defence to interview Corporal D, a young Canadian infantryman who had just returned. We spent dozens of hours together looking at his photos, chatting, looking at his videos. It was then suggested by the Canadian Forces that I might want to apply for the war artist program. Amazingly, I was chosen. In August, 2008, I had met LCol. Walsh, the CO of 1Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry. I told him that I wanted to go to Afghanistan and he said, ‘Come with us.’ He invited me to spend as much time as possible with 1PPCLI as they prepare. This invitation has opened doors to a world I knew nothing of before this project. Over the course of a year I visited Garrison, several bases, armouries etc. I have spent thousands of hours with soldiers, their spouses, parents, friends. I have been on ex (exercise) with them several times, shared meals with the soldiers, slept in tents with them, been sick with them, laughed with them, been bored with them, celebrated, and mourned with them. I know what it means to wear a frag vest, a helmet, sit in the belly of a LAV for 20 hours, sleep out in the open, run for safety, eat hard rations, rise at 4:45 with the cooks and dollop out food in a flying kitchen, listen to Karl Gustav, a truly frightening weapon, all day and feel his percussion through my body (exhausting, fearsome). I have done night watch in a gunner’s turret, seen live fire, sat for hours in the Quarter Master’s… it’s all been fascinating. It’s been equally fascinating watching the response I’ve had to this project. Once the soldiers realize that I’m not a journalist, they open up. I’ve had 99% positive reactions to my project from the general public, and the other 1% have used me as a target at which they can fire opinionated shots. I’ve been kissed and yelled at … pretty interesting stuff for a poet. I’m often asked if I’m afraid to go to Afghanistan. Perhaps foolishly, I’m not afraid. I believe 1PPCLI will protect me so well that I’ll be mad at them for not letting me see anything. But what I’m afraid of, and I’m being honest here, is that my work will not be good. To date I write everything on the fly. I have so little time for reflection, for revision. I long for an editor. Still, I post my work in its rough state because I heed the words of the great CanadianScots poet Tom Bryan, who has helped me so much throughout my work, ‘You need to be getting your stuff out there while Canadian boys [and women] are being injured and dying.’ I just returned from an ex where a soldier died. I have written about it. Someday I’ll publish it. A huge challenge is to differentiate between witness and exploitation. Ultimately, I see my work as witness. I try not to love the troops. I want my work to be record. I can only hope I have the courage to really write. For a description of Suzanne’s work and projects, visit her site www.warpoet.ca, which includes a BBC World Service interview from October 2008.
ISSN 1755-3377 Poetry Reader is published by the Scottish Poetry Library © Scottish Poetry Library and individual contributors 2009 Printed by Potts Printers Ltd on 100% recycled paper
Pam Beasant, our Orkney Poet Partner, recently rode shotgun on the mobile library, delivering poems to very remote homes!
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