Makar adds his tuppence-worth to independence debate
Published On Wed 17 Sep 2014 by Grant Hill
The sight and sound of BBC’s Newsnight programme being filmed in Broughty Ferry, complete with noisy and impassioned party-crashers, inspired Dundee’s Makar W.N Herbert to deliver his inimitable take on tomorrow’s referendum on Scottish independence.
The poet had previously declined to contribute to the debate, believing the decision on whether to vote Yes or No to be a personal one for individuals to make. However, the events of Monday night persuaded him to enter the fray with a new piece of work, entitled ‘Kirsty Wark on Broughty Ferry Beach, Or, An IndyRef Ode (by Gode)’.
“I tried not to write anything about the Indy ref,” he said. “How people vote on such an important business is entirely their own business, and it seemed there was quite enough noise as well as wisdom.
“But one sight on the TV of Kirsty Wark in Broughty Ferry did for me! It was the view from my flat's window, and for a weird moment TV and window seemed one. That brought home to me just how close to what we think of as home this debate is.
“That sense of closeness to and involvement with a great historical issue is what I will take from this, no matter the result. Seeing a bunch of Dundee faces I knew well in Kirsty's audience, I felt proud of how my town was handling itself. Hearing the hecklers, who may perhaps have had a wee drinkie, I was just as pleased to see the whole spectacle being punctured a bit. Serious when it wants to be, but no that serious - that's Dundee for me.”
Appointed by Literary Dundee, the University of Dundee's initiative to promote literature in the city, the Makar’s responsibilities are to mix traditional with technology with the aim of generating a new audience for poetry using social media platforms Facebook and Twitter and collaborating with computer games students to develop digital poetry projects.
W.N Herbert grew up in Dundee and compiled an anthology of poems 'Whaleback City' featuring Dundee with fellow author Andy Jackson. He has been shortlisted twice for the T.S. Eliot prize and twice for the Saltire.
Kirsty Wark on Broughty Ferry Beach, Or, An Indy Ref Ode
'...a single reality – a’ a’e oo’ -
O’ ... love and pity and fear;
A seamless garment o’ music and thought...'
('The Seamless Garment', Hugh MacDiarmid)
Turned oan meh telly - it wiz jist as Eh feared
they wur filmin Newsnicht oan thi Phibbie pier.
Ootside meh windae, tho Eh wiznae there,
thi debate went oan, lyk Eh didnae care.
Kirsty telt us aa whit's whit
while affstage drinkers yelled, 'Ye're shit!'
Yesseers and Nawists mindit thir lines
while Broughty Castle did 'sublime':
a pillar o glimmer i thi Dundee dark,
glimpsed lyk the wame o a grecht white shark.
Sprats i thi waater and spats oan thi land -
sma fare fae afar till ye understand,
if whaur ye live is wha ye are
We'll mebbe laive but we'll no go far.
If wha ye are's no whaur ye live
we wullna tak, we choose tae give -
Freedom's an idea tae share:
we breathe it here, noo inhale there.
Baith 'if's are true or amphibians fib
we're England's ither and its sib
( - exactly hoo they comprehend
this poem's leid as wierd-pretend).
Eh wiznae there, Eh wiz doon sooth
whaur Eh pit breid in meh bairnie's mooth.
Nor wiz Eh oot o Scotland, naw:
ilkane cairries thir ain snaw,
thir ain, thir native airt: its nicht;
Tay's mornin slab o platinum licht.
When Eh luked at thon weel-kent crood
(and heard thae hecklers, hauf-oan dudes),
saw Cox and Marra, Andy and Dylan,
Eh wiz there tae, and sae, Gode willin
(no Westminster, Brussels, NATO or ocht
o thae rogues wha think a nation is bocht),
come Aye or Naw Dundee will be
come Friday forenoon, a polity
composed o pehs and comics, yes,
as much inclined tae blast as bless,
but democratic tae the bane
sae come whitiver, aa at ane -
'Aa ae oo' MacDiarmid said:
let's greet the future as unread.
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