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  • Alec Finlay
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  • from ‘a better tale to tell’
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from ‘a better tale to tell’

Alec Finlay

please

we must have
our own powers

there are no advantages
for us here

*

however tiny
my contribution
I feel more

conscious
of my place

in this democratic society
than ever before

*

nobody in power
wants to give it up

politicians must become
better messengers

with a better tale
to tell

*

people
who voted Yes
did so

not through
some fantastical

Scottish nirvana
of Brigadoon

tartan and
shortbread

nor through
any anti-English
sentiment

*

No must mean No

*

I wonder
what happens
to those
with no-one

to help them?

values
are to do with
the moral life

experienced
in companionship
with other people

they are not derived
from a nationalist
or unionist
lexicon

*

change is risk

we could
get it
wrong

we have
nothing
to fear

we are better
than to be seduced

by heroic problem
solvers


Alec Finlay

From a better tale to tell (Studio Alec Finlay, 2015)

Reproduced by kind permission of the author

Tags:

change existence morality nationalism politics power and control Scotland
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Alec Finlayb.1966

Alec Finlay is an artist and poet whose work crosses over a range of media and forms.
More about Alec Finlay

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