Scottish Parliament oak to become final Glasgow 2026 poem-baton

Oak once part of the Scottish Parliament building will become a baton incorporating Passing, the final poem by poet RJ Arkhipov in his role as Poet-in-Residence of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games.

Announced on National Poetry Day, 1 October 2026, the baton will be made by LGBT woodworkers and unveiled on Human Rights Day, 10 December. The project draws on two meanings of this year’s theme, “Wonder”: wonder at the journey from acorn to oak tree, to part of the Scottish Parliament for two decades, and now to a Commonwealth Games poem-baton; and wonder at the progress Parliament has helped secure for LGBT+ people, and reflection on what remains to be done.

The oak comes from one of the timber poles removed when the Scottish Parliament’s front canopy was refurbished in recent years. The work will bring together words addressed to lawmakers and wood that once formed part of Parliament itself.

The piece of oak that will become the baton has already featured at Pride House Glasgow 2026 and been carried in a relay with participants in Zero Flags Commonwealth during the Games. Presented by the Zero Flags Project and LEAP Sports Scotland, the outdoor exhibition flew the flags of Commonwealth countries where consensual same-sex relationships remain criminalised, each with a black mourning ribbon.

The wood’s next stop will be OUT: Scotland’s Queer Book Festival, bringing LGBTQ+ authors, poets and readers to the Stirling Smith Art Gallery and Museum on 17 October. Arkhipov reflected that festival headliner Jackie Kay, the former Scots Makar whose writing explores her experiences as a Black lesbian woman, also has words on the exterior of the Scottish Parliament on its Canongate Wall, where quotations are carved into stone along the Royal Mile.

At the festival, Arkhipov will ask attendees to choose a single word they wish parliamentarians to hear and write it directly onto the timber. He takes inspiration from Open the Doors!, written for the opening of the Scottish Parliament building in 2004 by Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s first Makar, who was gay. Addressing MSPs as “Dear friends, dear lawgivers, dear parliamentarians”, Morgan asks: “What do the people want of this place?”

The words contributed in response to that question will help inspire Arkhipov as he writes Passing. The timber will then be turned into a baton, incorporating the completed poem.

Commenting, RJ Arkhipov said:

“I think it is fitting that my final poem as Poet-in-Residence of the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games should be a baton. I began with a poem celebrating the King’s Baton Relay, for which a single ash tree provided the wood for all 74 batons. Different nations and territories carried different pieces of the same tree.

“Throughout the residency, I have enjoyed exploring the different forms a poem can take, through Oulipian constraints, found poetry, reverse haiku, blackout poetry and now a poem-object. With Passing, the material is part of the poem.

“The Scottish Parliament has helped secure so many of our rights, including equal marriage, joint adoption for same-sex couples and the repeal of Section 28. Yet parliamentary debate has also become a source of grief for many in our community, particularly our trans friends and family. There is much to celebrate in that history, but we cannot take progress for granted.

“A baton is a meeting place, where members of the same team come together. My hope is that this poem-baton might offer an annual opportunity for LGBT+ artists, writers and athletes to take part in a relay, drawing attention to the rights we still need to secure and those we must continue to defend.”

The residency has been delivered with the Scottish Poetry Library. The completed poem-baton will be gifted to the Library, beside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.

Passing continues Arkhipov’s exploration of poetry’s physical form and its relationship to LGBT+ rights. In 2015, he wrote poems using his own blood as ink to protest blood-donation restrictions affecting gay, bisexual and other men who have sex with men. These became part of his debut collection, Visceral: The Poetry of Blood, published by Zuleika.

ENDS