Poets of the future write lines to the past

Published on Monday 2 February 2009 19:23

IT IS TO be the biggest gathering of the clans ever held, bringing thousands of Scots from home and abroad to Edinburgh in a huge celebration of Scottish, Highland and clan culture.

And in honour of The Gathering 2009, The Scotsman, in conjunction with the Scottish Poetry Library today launches the search for a poem that expresses the essence of coming together.

Poems are invited from children, young people and adults both from Scotland and from around the world, that will bear the title The Gathering – but which can interpret the subject in any way imaginable.

To launch the competition, Edinburgh Makar Ron Butlin has written a poem that expresses the sadness of those who were forced to leave Scotland in the Highland Clearances – and which ends with a hope of healing for the Scottish nation and its people.

Butlin says: "I was trying to get to the notion of something that is really behind the Homecoming – a kind of touching base for everyone Scottish – whether they are inside the country or outside the country.

"As Scots, our history has been a chequered one. Now we are in charge of where we are going and where we are and that is a good place to be."

Alexander McCall Smith, who is one of the judges for the competition, says: "Culture, of course, is one of those words that can be expanded and contracted like an accordion. Culture is a mixture of the material – how we ensure our physical survival – and the immaterial – the way in which we see ourselves and the world about us. The Homecoming – and in particular The Gathering 2009 – is about one particular group of people and their culture. It is about those mental and spiritual goods that we use to understand ourselves and the world."

The organisers of The Gathering 2009, which will involve a Clan Parade, a Highland Games and a Historical Pageant at Edinburgh Castle. say they expect 40,000 visitors to come to the celebration of clan culture, which will take place over the weekend of July 25-26.

Co-director of The Gathering 2009, Lord Sempill, says: "It is going to be a great celebration of culture and tradition. We have to do everything we can to make sure it is a huge success."

Lord Sempill adds that he is delighted The Scotsman is promoting The Gathering 2009 in the form of a poetry competition. "There is a very strong tradition within the clans and the Highland culture of the spoken word and particularly of the role of the bard. That is very much part of the legacy of the clans."

Lorna Irvine, education officer for the Scottish Poetry Library, says: " We are hoping for as wide and as deep a response as human nature can give.

"It is about what it is to be Scottish, what it is to be a nation, what it is to be in love and about the Scottish natural environment. That is what home is – it is about love and hope, and poetry is the best way to express that."

The Scotsman's editor Mike Gilson says: "We are delighted to support this competition and hope that readers will use their creative juices to explain what the Gathering means to them."

THE Year of Homecoming is a bit of a mixed bag. It is about land and roots and being Scottish and… well, it's a lot of things really. But one clear strand of it is Scottish culture, and what that culture means to people. That is not cultural bombast or braggadocio: it is the celebration of that which binds us one to another regardless of where we find ourselves; that which makes this world a less intimidating, impersonal place.

"Culture", of course, is one of those words that can be expanded and contracted like an accordion. Culture is a mixture of the material – how we ensure our physical survival – and the immaterial – the way in which we see ourselves and the world about us. Homecoming – and in particular The Gathering – is about one particular group of people and their culture. It is about those mental and spiritual goods that we use to understand ourselves and the world.

These goods are manifold and various – they are music and song, stories written and unwritten, painting, film – about all the things that makars do. They may be small or big – the first poem of a child, his or her first drawing, are part of this as much as the award-winning book or the tune that seizes the imagination of thousands. The most amateur effort in a poetry competition will be as important, in a way, as the most polished, in that it represents a work of the heart and an act of participation in a great public cultural act.

But The Gathering 2009 is also about the traditions of Scotland that have been kept alive through the clan organisations both at home and abroad and the important role they play in passing on Scotland's traditional culture to new generations. Over one weekend in July, clan chiefs and clan representatives will gather in Edinburgh with Scots from around the globe. They are coming home to celebrate their roots.

The Gathering is a Scottish event, and for some that might raise concerns of exclusivity and cultural nationalism. Those concerns would be well-placed if this were all about the wrong sort of pride – if it were intended to say that Scottish culture is something we have and others do not, or that it is in some way superior to the other cultural offerings on the table. But it is not doing that; what it is doing is telling people there is something in their heritage they may care to look at again and restore to its place in their sense of who they are.

We all come from somewhere, and if you come from North America or Australia or any of the other places where some communities' roots may be more recent, then it is quite understandable that one might wish to have some sense of what went before. That is a universal human urge – the desire to know one's past and to incorporate some part of that past in one's sense of self.

The Gathering, then, and the cultural activities that go with it, are intended to link us with a cultural heritage that, in the noise and rub of modern life, can be somewhat ignored. It is a truism that the modern culture is international. The reasons for this are obvious – modern communications mean images and sounds are bounced into our homes from all over the world, entertaining and informing us according to an agenda of slick, corporate creators. Authentic artistic experience has become a luxury; what is more readily on hand is a bland international culture that threatens to overwhelm ancient national cultures. It is a fact of life that our view of the world is now inordinately influenced by a superficial popular culture that is the equivalent of piped music: "piped culture", perhaps.

In such circumstances, the local and the particular assume a new importance. National cultures incorporate a particular way of looking at the world. Scottish culture today includes both that part – the inherited part, so to speak – and the modern part that as often or not is garnered from elsewhere.

The inherited part is the vulnerable element, and calls for nurturing and support if it is to survive. This is something that those with Scottish roots living elsewhere in the world are often better at than us Scots at home. And that is why we need to make sure that we pass on the cultural inheritance of this country.

Part of that must be done by schools – through ensuring that Scottish literature, music and history is given adequate room in the syllabus – but part can be done through major cultural efforts such as The Gathering and the community programme that runs alongside it.

One of the saddest casualties of the dulling of authentic local culture in my view is the replacing of a written and spoken children's culture by an electronic one. There is a wonderful book by Iona and Peter Opie called The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren. This book, first published in 1959 and which is still in print today, lists numerous counting rhymes, poems and sayings of children, many of them Scottish. Where has all this richness gone? What has replaced it?

The Gathering is an opportunity for a bit of timely stock-taking – and celebration – of some of the things that make the world more interesting, colourful, and ultimately loveable.

&#149 Tea Time for the Traditionally Built by Alexander McCall Smith, the tenth book in The No 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, will be published in March by Little, Brown. For more details about The Gathering, log on to www.clangathering.org

THE GATHERING 2009 by Ron Butlin

Several centuries ago we found ourselves drawn

into someone else's slipstream.

Scottish history shut down.

We breathed dead air. Whole villages collapsed into rubble,

fields wasted to empty moorland, mountains retreated

to wrap themselves in cloud, lochs swallowed down curses

and their waters turned black.

Families were split, clans broken up

and the human wreckage scattered

to the winds. What was left was still a country,

but only just.

In the last year of the last millennium we summoned up our strength

– we sidestepped the slipstream.

We kick-started our history.

Ten years on it's time to get together, all of us –

the families, the clans, the country.

Time to take a good hard look at what we've been through –

at the cost paid by generation after generation

of people just like us.

It's time to take a good hard look at who we really are.

Q & A: HOW TO ENTER THE COMPETITION

What are the categories for entries?

A – Under 12; B – 12-14 years; C – 15-17 years; D – Adults (over 18)

What are the judges looking for?

Poems are to be entitled The Gathering and should be no longer than 20 lines. Although we are expecting many entries to focus on Scottish identity, entrants are free to interpret the subject in whatever what they choose.

How do I enter?

Poems should be submitted by post to: The Gathering 2009 Poetry Competition, The Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton's Close, Canongate, Edinburgh EH8 8DT

Entries should be typed, double spaced on A4 paper. They can be written in any language but must be accompanied by a translation into English.

Please include your name, address, telephone number and e-mail address. Entrants in categories A-C should state their age and the category they are entering. If aged under 16, entrants should also include contact telephone numbers for a parent, guardian or teacher.

How long have I got?

The closing date for entries is 1 May, 2009. Unfortunately, we are unable to acknowledge receipt of entries

What can I win?

Winning poems will be published in The Scotsman in June and winners will receive a volume of Scots poems from The Scottish Poetry Library and a Gathering 2009 Commemorative Award. The winners and runners-up will also receive two tickets to The Gathering 2009 in Holyrood Park on either 25 or 26 July.