Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • National Poetry Day 2020
    • New Titles
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • Nadine Aisha Jassat
  • >
  • The Years
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

The Years

Nadine Aisha Jassat

It was six years after the fact
that I became I
perhaps again, perhaps for the first time.

There was the suggestion
that I should mark each passage
with a commemoration
to what had been lost,
or survived,
words like redemption
but that was never I,
for I have nothing to apologise for
and I’ll take my time.

Simply put,
the days followed the days
and the weeks followed the weeks
and the months the months
and the years the years
until I became I
until I became I.


Nadine Aisha Jassat

From Let Me Tell You This (404 Ink, 2019)

Reproduced by permission of the author.

Tags:

identity

About this poem

This poem was included in Best Scottish Poems 2019. Best Scottish Poems is an online publication, consisting of 20 poems chosen by a different editor each year, with comments by the editor and poets. It provides a personal overview of a year of Scottish poetry. The editor in 2019 was Roseanne Watt.

Editor’s note:

Let Me Tell You This is a vibrant and powerful collection, encompassing a lyrical movement of sharply-observed political pieces on misogyny and racism, to tender meditations on heritage, memory, and the bonds between women. I found myself returning again and again to the spellbinding lines of ‘The Years’. The theme of identity, of forging it and of reclaiming it as one’s own, runs like a river through the pages of Let Me Tell You This, and I loved the way the word ‘I’ comes to visually do the same here, building to the resolute affirmation of those final lines.

Author’s note:

I originally wrote ‘The Years’ as part of a journey shared through a series of four poems in Let Me Tell You This: ‘Inbetween Tales’, ‘Established 1978’, ‘The Years’ and, finally, the title poem ‘Let Me Tell You’. From the moment I decided to publish ‘The Years’, it was less about how it stood as a poem, and more about what it meant to me, in that journey, and the importance of articulating what the poem does – the lines: ‘I have nothing to apologise for, and I’ll take my time.’ The straight forward honesty and direct speech of the poem, for me, was part of conveying that which my work often tries to: the emotion of an experience, the strength of the ‘I’ undertaking that journey, and ultimately, the story of it all, too. Consequently, ‘The Years’ was first published because of the story it told, and how important it was to have those words said as a marker of that story and journey. This makes it all the more delightful to have it recognised for its power as a stand-alone poem now.

Share this
Facebook
Twitter
Email

Learn more

Best Scottish Poems 2019

edited by Roseanne Watt
Find out more

Nadine Aisha Jassat

Nadine Aisha Jassat is a poet, writer, and creative practitioner.
More about Nadine Aisha Jassat

Podcasts

Our audio programme of poets, poems and news for you to listen to.
Listen Now
  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss