Kathleen Jamie, Scotland’s National Poet (Makar), invites submissions for a collective poem that will speak to our times.
Jamie says: “We are aware that many people feel despairing at this moment. I hope that through this process of artistic creation, rather than destruction, people will feel that hope is possible.”
“This curated poem will say something that is true and heartfelt, reflecting the diversity of experiences and perspectives of people living within Scotland. Poetry provides space and integrity to express concerns on global themes, such as conflict and climate collapse.”
Members of the public of all ages, who are resident in Scotland or are part of the wider diaspora, are invited to submit lines of poetry via a form on the Scottish Poetry Library’s (SPL) website.
The form has now closed, so it is no longer possible to submit lines of poetry. Once the Makar has curated these lines to create “An Address from the People of Scotland to the Leaders of the World”, it will be published on our website.
Submissions are welcome in English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic.
Jamie will create the poem, ‘An Address from the People of Scotland to the Leaders of the World’, from selected lines that are submitted. This will be published on the SPL’s website, and accessible audio and video recordings will also be shared via the SPL’s social media.
Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf supports the Makar’s initiative. The First Minister said, “As we face a climate crisis and conflict across the world, it is vitally important that we work together to make the world a better place. This includes calling on world leaders to do the right thing, and the arts is a great way of speaking in a collective voice.”
This will be the third collective poem that Kathleen Jamie has produced in her tenure as Makar, which began in August 2021. The previous collective poems were ‘Our waking breath: A poem-letter from Scotland to Ukraine’ in 2022 and a triptych of nature poems for the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in 2021.