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Pupil

Christie Williamson

da sunlicht strikes da back
o mi een an cuts trow da fug
o mi fitful heid an hit’s a dumb dug
at canna makk oot da lack

at nae amoont o wirds an windreens
can fill wi mair as empty shadoos
o da blaand an bluid lost i da boos
o sixareens sailed intae smidereens

dis terra firma haes me tinkin
lang o dem at’s bön an gien afore
as if I feel mi bons sinkin

trow da saft bug o da tapmaest hill
whaur someday frysher leegs as mine
‘ll staund aneath da sun an winder still


Christie Williamson

Tags:

vision

About this poem

This poem was chosen by Thomas Clark as part of the Scottish Poetry Library’s ‘Champions’ project, a guest curatorship programme to help extend our national reach.

Thomas Clark says, ‘We’re no supposed tae hae favourites, but ah’m haudin ma hauns up – if ah could anely save the ae dialect o Scots for future generations, it’d be Shetlandic aw day lang. No that the guid makars o the Northren Isles are needin ony hauners frae me tae keep their language on the agenda. Weel-accustomed though the Shetlands are tae bein sindert frae the charts o oor geography, nae poetic map o Scotland could bide their loss. Coorse, a language is anely the fowk that use it, an pickin a favourite frae the local dialects o Scotland would be wan hell o a proposition if ilka yin o them could boast a makar like Christie Williamson. Scots, an especially dialectal Scots, is a haundy tool for misdirection. For makars o a prestidigitatious bent, wirds o sufficient beauty or obscurity can aft conceal the howe at the hert o an image, the tuim dunt o a daeless line. An yet, for aw the Shetland smuir an haar that bytimes owerlays it, Williamson’s poetry faws skyrie-clear on ee an lug alike. Scots as the language o hearth an hame – aye, thon’s the weird we’ve aw tae dree. Translations on a tea-towel, Coorie On Caledonia, the hale jingbang. But let’s no forget the real pouer o oor language, o ony language – tae mak the familiar strynge, the strynge familiar. An it’s through sic transmutations as these that Christie Williamson taks oor leiden thochts, the backgrund buzz o oor weary heids, an clours them intae gowd.’

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Christie Williamson

Christie Williamson is a Shetland-born poet and editor now living in Glasgow.
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