Musings from the Merse
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
BARDS OF BERWICKSHIRE
SPECTRES ON THE LANDSCAPE
Well here it is. Thank you Meigle Printers of Galashiels for a good job. The book is unveiled: small yes, slim very and perfectly formed
It will be launched on to a suspecting world at a concert given by Brass on Tweed in Christchurch Duns on the evening of 18 October with some of the poets reading their contributions interspersed with Scott Joplin, Asher, Handel and the like. Three Prize winning contributors (Primary School age, High School, and previously unpublished adult) will be presented with their prizes and will also read. And amidst the crunching of crisps and slurping of wine, copies of the anthology will be on sale as part of the apres culture entertainment
Space is very limited. I have all the tickets
If you want to avoid a mad rush you know what you have to do
SPECTRES ON THE LANDSCAPE
Well here it is. Thank you Meigle Printers of Galashiels for a good job. The book is unveiled: small yes, slim very and perfectly formed
It will be launched on to a suspecting world at a concert given by Brass on Tweed in Christchurch Duns on the evening of 18 October with some of the poets reading their contributions interspersed with Scott Joplin, Asher, Handel and the like. Three Prize winning contributors (Primary School age, High School, and previously unpublished adult) will be presented with their prizes and will also read. And amidst the crunching of crisps and slurping of wine, copies of the anthology will be on sale as part of the apres culture entertainment
Space is very limited. I have all the tickets
If you want to avoid a mad rush you know what you have to do
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry, s, Spectres on the Landscape
Monday, June 15, 2009
LAST CHANCE SALOON
for budding Borders' Poets as the anthology of Berwickshire verse is nearly complete. Some amazing talent has surfaced and not all the stuff is deadly serious. Asked for an iconic image of the county some one has suggested not Coldingham Bay, St Abbs Head, Fishwick By-Pass, B6461, Greenlaw Town Hall or even Duns Castle but a pile of dog pooh. Not to worry the Editor would not stoop so low (except, in extremis, with a pooper scooper) However one of the poets has suggested this:
THE BORDERS’ SOLUTION
“DOGS WHO OFFEND WILL BE SHOT”
read the notice
and in smaller letters:
‘Owners of offending dogs.
You have been warned!’
‘That should do the trick’
said the large man
with a baseball hat’.
putting another shell
into his shotgun.
stepping carefully over
the spent cartridges
and
the corpses
(There were some dead dogs
as well).
‘I sometimes think
that the chairman
of the Community Council
takes his duties too seriously’
said
the lady with the pooper scooter
and the bullet proof
vest.
Its in the pending tray
for budding Borders' Poets as the anthology of Berwickshire verse is nearly complete. Some amazing talent has surfaced and not all the stuff is deadly serious. Asked for an iconic image of the county some one has suggested not Coldingham Bay, St Abbs Head, Fishwick By-Pass, B6461, Greenlaw Town Hall or even Duns Castle but a pile of dog pooh. Not to worry the Editor would not stoop so low (except, in extremis, with a pooper scooper) However one of the poets has suggested this:
THE BORDERS’ SOLUTION
“DOGS WHO OFFEND WILL BE SHOT”
read the notice
and in smaller letters:
‘Owners of offending dogs.
You have been warned!’
‘That should do the trick’
said the large man
with a baseball hat’.
putting another shell
into his shotgun.
stepping carefully over
the spent cartridges
and
the corpses
(There were some dead dogs
as well).
‘I sometimes think
that the chairman
of the Community Council
takes his duties too seriously’
said
the lady with the pooper scooter
and the bullet proof
vest.
Its in the pending tray
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry, dog pooh
Monday, April 13, 2009
Hame is where the Poet is
The story here in the Berwickshire News is very good news for Huttonian's Autumn project about which there have been previous posts. Not only will the first three prize winning poems appear in the money-raising anthology but two others from Eyemouth pupils will also be featured. I also expect that Berwickshire High School pupils who are running a competition for 5 poems will prove to be equally proficient
So much for the kids. The response from more senior folk has been disappointing numerically-a few excellent efforts but not enough for a worthwhile anthology. There is still time
But not much
In the meanwhile I think this is an astonishingly good effort from a third year pupil
HOME IS TO WHERE YOU RETURN
"From the weather- beaten shore to the bright city lights,
In a crowded bar with beat-up guitars.
Friday and Saturday night we lose ourselves to the beat and folk,
While a room full of people dance and sing,
Beer spills and the room fills with comforting cigarette smoke,
A beautiful girl saws on a fiddle, looking down she smiles at her feet,
Her blond hair glows in the lime light from adoring faces,
We feel sheltered and loved under the clouds while they leak,
We walk singing through the city,
Instruments slung casually over our shoulders,
In black cases reflecting the night.
But we move away from this beautiful land,
To ski, surf and sit in the sand,
We won't feel any pain being this far away,
As long as we sing our Strathspey in the rain.
And one day we'll hitch' home, settle down, never go far
And pick up our guitars where we left off in the bar."
Go on, match that.
The story here in the Berwickshire News is very good news for Huttonian's Autumn project about which there have been previous posts. Not only will the first three prize winning poems appear in the money-raising anthology but two others from Eyemouth pupils will also be featured. I also expect that Berwickshire High School pupils who are running a competition for 5 poems will prove to be equally proficient
So much for the kids. The response from more senior folk has been disappointing numerically-a few excellent efforts but not enough for a worthwhile anthology. There is still time
But not much
In the meanwhile I think this is an astonishingly good effort from a third year pupil
HOME IS TO WHERE YOU RETURN
"From the weather- beaten shore to the bright city lights,
In a crowded bar with beat-up guitars.
Friday and Saturday night we lose ourselves to the beat and folk,
While a room full of people dance and sing,
Beer spills and the room fills with comforting cigarette smoke,
A beautiful girl saws on a fiddle, looking down she smiles at her feet,
Her blond hair glows in the lime light from adoring faces,
We feel sheltered and loved under the clouds while they leak,
We walk singing through the city,
Instruments slung casually over our shoulders,
In black cases reflecting the night.
But we move away from this beautiful land,
To ski, surf and sit in the sand,
We won't feel any pain being this far away,
As long as we sing our Strathspey in the rain.
And one day we'll hitch' home, settle down, never go far
And pick up our guitars where we left off in the bar."
Go on, match that.
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry, Burns'es Wanted, Poetry Anthology
Monday, April 06, 2009
Calling more Burns
Poems are slowling trickling in for the anthology of Berwickshire verse we are putting together to raise money for local charities. I like this one :
A Whiteadder Day
I lie in supplication, awaiting the fiery face
Of a shrouded sun to warm my pallored cheeks.
A toying breeze touches and teases slender reeds
Whispering windy warnings of gales to come,
Whilst blowing angry clouds to other tearful skies
The myriad starburst, a celebration
Of the sun’s arrival to the rippled lake.
Makes fishermen release their uncaught sorrows,
And sailor’s leathered faces mirror cheery flags
On rainbowed, scudding, white-sailed yachts.
The harshness of overbearing, sentried hills is softened
By the sun-peeped patchwork of purple-heathered slopes,
Quilting the slate-capped, white-walled homes.
Whose windows gaze, sightless, on a blood-berried ash
Clinging bent, wind-wizened, to the rocky shore.
One gory branch waves a warning of impending gales
To pack-burdened walkers on a distant rocky ridge,
Crawling their ant-hilled, zigzagged way to home,
And fish-gorged herons fly to their fledgling families,
But I lie still, anchored to the earth by mankind’s gravity.
We need a lot more to make tha anthology worthwhile. Anyone who has a poem in them is very welcome ro contribute. You don't even have to be living in Berwickshire. Sad if you are not but worse things happen
Poems are slowling trickling in for the anthology of Berwickshire verse we are putting together to raise money for local charities. I like this one :
A Whiteadder Day
I lie in supplication, awaiting the fiery face
Of a shrouded sun to warm my pallored cheeks.
A toying breeze touches and teases slender reeds
Whispering windy warnings of gales to come,
Whilst blowing angry clouds to other tearful skies
The myriad starburst, a celebration
Of the sun’s arrival to the rippled lake.
Makes fishermen release their uncaught sorrows,
And sailor’s leathered faces mirror cheery flags
On rainbowed, scudding, white-sailed yachts.
The harshness of overbearing, sentried hills is softened
By the sun-peeped patchwork of purple-heathered slopes,
Quilting the slate-capped, white-walled homes.
Whose windows gaze, sightless, on a blood-berried ash
Clinging bent, wind-wizened, to the rocky shore.
One gory branch waves a warning of impending gales
To pack-burdened walkers on a distant rocky ridge,
Crawling their ant-hilled, zigzagged way to home,
And fish-gorged herons fly to their fledgling families,
But I lie still, anchored to the earth by mankind’s gravity.
We need a lot more to make tha anthology worthwhile. Anyone who has a poem in them is very welcome ro contribute. You don't even have to be living in Berwickshire. Sad if you are not but worse things happen
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry
Monday, March 16, 2009
The Muse has Landed (from Paxton)
Huttonian is pleased to report that the first contribution for the anthology of Berwickshire verse due to be published in October and to be sold for local charities has landed on our doorstep. A stirring ballad of 8 verses entitled 'The Summer of 2008' it is setting a high standard for the rest of the contributors. If any. The author, who lives not a million miles from Paxton has pointed me towards a 1930s collection of mostly poetry:
"Folk Tales of the Borders" which has a splendid opening line ;
'I stood open Eyemouth Beach and what do you think I saw?'( Bloggees are earnestly asked for suggestions...) Had it been Spitall Beach the answer would be noisesomely predictable.
A title for the anthology is needed. Some one suggested ' Musings from the Merse' but that's, er, taken. (There actually is a 19th century collection of Borders Poetry called Merse Musings which I only heard about well after I started the blog)
The editor would welcome ideas on this as well
(The image is of Eyemouth Beach. NB hopefully continent dog. Nevertheles, if standing on it, be careful)
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry, Eyemouth Beach, Spitall
Saturday, March 07, 2009
Are you a poet and don't know it?
is a small headline on page 7 of the latest Berwickshire. This is a project to attract poets in Berwickshire to send in contributions verse for an anthology due to be published in October to raise money for a local charity. Huttonian has some experience in this type of project having put together an anthology of diplomatic verse ( somewhat oxymoronic concept suggested Mike Longley, the Norn Iron poetic giant) Oxymoron or not, having paid for the production up front the book made several thousand pounds profit for three charities working overseas. And it was reviewed in the New Statesman-surprisingly well, given that organ's usually ill concealed dislike for government institutions and their stuffy and unimaginative lackeys. I suspect the problem in Berwickshire will be persuading diffident closet versifiers to send in their contributions. The High Schools are a potential rich vein of literary talent and we are hoping that we can attract prize winning poetry as a result of in-school competitions-the glittering prize being publication and an invitation to read some of their work at the launch of the anthology at a performance poetry event.
I am hopeful that local bloggees have unpublished master/mistresspieces lurking in some dusty drawer or can find the inspiration to put mouse to Word: 30 lines maximum , theme unimportant but ideally a Merse connotation, however contrived; free verse is fine, scanning more important than rhyme, humour particularly welcome
More details via the Comments to Huttonian e-mail link
(Image is of the dip ditties publication)
Labels: Berwickshire Poetry, Calling all poets
