IT IS a good day for poetry lovers.
It is Burns Night, of course, but raising a dram to Rabbie is only part of the story.
Just a few days ago, America’s National Youth Poet Laureate reminded everyone why poetry is still often the best way to find the right words to say the right thing at the right time.
Amanda Gorman, the show-stealing 22-year-old who read her poem The Hill We Climb at President Joe Biden’s inauguration ceremony, has a global army of new fans.
Her elegant, passionate reading stopped everyone in this house in our tracks and if the reactions on social media are any judge, the same was true around the world.
“We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what ‘just’ is isn’t always justice,” she said, on an icy-cold January afternoon in Washington.
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“We, the successors of a country and a time where a skinny Black girl descended from slaves and raised by a single mother can dream of becoming president, only to find herself reciting for one…”
It was electrifying, proper shiver-down-the-spine stuff, a reminder how powerful poetry can be.
In first year at secondary school, I remember the impact of reading Edwin Morgan, Stevie Smith and Christina Rossetti for the first time (we had a brilliant English teacher, who opened our eyes and ears to a whole world of words beyond the prescribed texts we sat down to in class, and the limitations of the syllabus.)
Love of poetry has stayed with me, through university, where I studied everything from Emily Dickinson to the Scottish Ballads, and discovered, via the Edinburgh Fringe, Roger McGough and the genius of John Hegley.
It is good to see contemporary poets like Jackie Kay and Don Paterson on our sons’ reading lists at school today. Poetry is part of Scotland’s history, language and culture. The fact we have a Makar, a National Poet, whose remit includes producing poems to mark significant events in our nation, speaks to its importance; and no other figure from our past is afforded the level of celebration Robert Burns has in his honour.
The current Makar, Jackie Kay, says Burns demonstrated poetry “holds up a unique mirror to a nation’s heart, mind and soul. It is the pure language that tells us who we are.”
American poet Alice Osborn says poetry’s strength lies in “its ability to shed a sideways light on the world, so the truth sneaks up on you”, which also applies to Burns, who had an uncanny ability to turn the seemingly ordinary into astute observations about his fellow human beings and the wider Scottish society.
Powerful poetry resonates, and Amanda Gorman proves age is not a factor. Perhaps we should take a leaf out of America’s book and have a Youth Makar? To give Scotland’s young people a chance to put their voices and experiences centre-stage? This would be the time.
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