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  • Scotland to Queensland, Glasgow to Gold Coast
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Scotland to Queensland, Glasgow to Gold Coast

Liz Lochhead

Friendship is a real boat,
Clydebuilt like the best of them,
pride and strength in every rivet and spot weld.
A vessel to last lifetimes, to carry a bond
not severed ever by distance.

The good ship Friendship sails between Glasgow
And your far, your golden, coast.
May fierce friendship forever flourish
Between each competing nation and its host.

So after passing on the baton
Scotland to Queensland,
Glasgow to Gold Coast,
There remains a passion for far more
than future medals won.

The good ship Friendship sails between Glasgow
And your far, your golden, coast.
May fierce friendship forever flourish
Between each competing nation and its host.

We await your call for we have begun to dream.
In the hold: promises to keep, athletes
primed to compete, impatient for the day we set sail
on an ebb tide of auld lang syne to a
landfall welcome of kaiala.

Liz Lochhead, Scots Makar & Jim Carruth, Poet Laureate of Glasgow


Liz Lochhead

Published by permission of the Scottish Government.

Tags:

competition friendship graces & toasts hope metaphor multiculturalism sayings ships and boats sport

About this poem

Scotland’s Makar Liz Lochhead and Glasgow’s Poet Laureate Jim Carruth provided this response to the Scottish Government’s request for a poem to mark the handover of the Commonwealth Games from Glasgow to Queensland, Australia.

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Liz Lochheadb.1947

Appointed Scots Makar from 2011 to 2016, Liz Lochhead is both transgressive and popular; as Anne Varty wrote, ‘her work is that of one woman speaking to many,  and one person speaking for many’.
More about Liz Lochhead

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