Absolutely honoured to have the poem, ‘Highland Daunder’, from my debut collection (Time Cleaves Itself) in the Guardian newspaper, selected by Carol Rumens as poem on the week!!
To have such a detailed close reading of a single poem by a revered and experienced poet is truly incredible!
There are also interesting reflections on the poem and on languages and dialects, as well as gifted poems, by generous people in the comments. It’s beautiful to witness the calls and responses here, and the thoughtful, detailed attention – I’m grateful to everyone taking the time to connect with the poem.
‘Highland Daunder’ is written primarily in Scots – a mix of modern and auld. One of the things I love about Scots is the musicality of the language, so I thought some folk might like to hear it:
Highland Daunder
Kestrel in ma chest: wheesht yersel –
you belang here, amang th gorse n heather.
Lat thaim ramble thair een ower you –
yer broun body stravaigin th glen isnae an unnatural sicht.
Ignore thair conflummixt n scunnert physogs –
thay cannae sense th braken brainches wi’in you.
Follae that rare spinal path.
Moor yersel tae th wasterly winds.
Seek oot th juttin headlands
n staund yer grund.
Speak wi yer naitural vyce –
thay’ll naw believe but thay dinnae ken ony better.
Be as patient as th fantoush siller birk –
Aye… or as fleetin as thistledoun.
Scots-English glossary:
skouth – freedom of movement, liberty to range, freedom to express oneself, abundance [part 1 of Time Cleaves Itself, where this poem is situated]
een – eyes
daunder – stroll
wheesht – hush
stravaigin – wandering about casually
conflummixt – confused (by an unwelcome surprise), bewildered
scunnert – disgusted
physogs – faces
ony – any
fantoush – flashy
siller – silver
birk – birch
For more Scots words and translations, see:
‘Highland Daunder’ explores the experience of hyper-visibility and being viewed as unexpected (sometimes unwanted) as a Black person or person of colour in Scottish rural spaces. Though nature does not judge. There is a reclamation of space, language and belonging, from the perspective of coming from African Caribbean and white Celtic mixed heritage and how entwined Scotland and the Caribbean are.
Buy Time Cleaves Itself from Peepal Tree Press or your local bookshop.
Wee update: Thanks to ‘nosuchzone’ in the Guardian comments for catching a typo on my homepage 😳 and a missing part of the video description. In my rush to film the video, edit the captions, upload to YouTube, add video descriptions, etc I completely missed including the large window that takes up a third of the frame!! 😂 The only AI involved is the automated caption generator, which I always edit and (as you can imagine) did not handle the Scots very well!
Also – I’d planned to reply in the Guardian comments, but this happened in a rather busy week, followed by a short break with the kids to Fife, and now comments are closed. Ach well. So it goes.
