This is just a small post, and one brought on by impulse. It has been inspired by something I’m beginning to sense; something I’m beginning to feel happening in this country. Is Scotland about to wake (or has it already woken?) from a 304 year slumber?
It’s hard to tell for definite, but I think it might be more than just a feeling of hope.
I was on holiday last summer with my ex-girlfriend in sunny Spain, and brought along something to read, settling on the 4th novel by the brilliant Scottish writer James Robertson, And the Land Lay Still - the title of which was taken from the poem ‘The Summons’ from late Edwin Morgan's Sonnets from Scotland.
The novel itself is preceded by Morgan’s piece, and for me it has a small nationalist tinge. I’ve never been one for deciphering or understanding poems to any degree, but I think the last line resonates…
“The year was ending, and the land lay still.
Despite our countdown, we were loath to go,
kept padding along the ridge, the broad glow
of the city beneath us, and the hill
swirling with a little mist. Stars were right,
plans, power; only now this unforeseen
reluctance, like a slate we could not clean
of characters, yet could not read, or write
our answers on, or smash, or take with us.
Not a hedgehog stirred. We sighed, climbed in, locked.
If it was love we felt, would it not keep,
and travel where we travelled? Without fuss
we lifted off, but as we checked and talked
a far horn grew to break that people’s sleep.”
Will the independence referendum pass? Who knows? But it’s something that I’m beginning to sense is increasingly possible. And if it does, it will be in no small part down to the money gifted by Edwin Morgan to the party. A selfless act and an example.
And if James Robertson could read this - I hope you have another book due in soon.
Happy holidays everyone.
Ross Croall, @croall89
No comments:
Post a Comment