Award-winning Dundee poet brings his Poem for Scotland to Aberdeen

Award-winning Dundee poet brings his Poem for Scotland to Aberdeen

Award-winning Dundee poet brings his

Poem for Scotland to Aberdeen

Date: Tuesday,

An award-winning Dundee poet, whose poem the Ploughman won the prestigious Poem for Scotland prize in 1998, will visit the University of Aberdeen tomorrow (Wednesday, March 7).

Scott Martin and local Aberdeen poets Sheena Blackhall and John Easton will each have a poem mounted on the wall of the Queen Mother Library in a joint display of their work.

The three poems - Ploughman, Aberdeen, and Brig O Balgownie - are complemented by excellent photographs, which have been skilfully worked into the posters. Together they represent three different perspectives for the reader: Scotland going into the future, Aberdeen as it is now and Old Aberdeen within a historical context.

Mr Martin, who attended Shawbost School on Stornoway as a boy, and whose grandfather was a crofter there, won The Poem for Scotland in October 1998. A national competition was held to find a poem that would represent Scotland on the last St Andrews Day before the Millennium and the historic inauguration of the Scottish Parliament.

Ploughman is a universal poem and the judges chose it because of this theme. It captures vividly the image of Scott’s father, ploughing a field at night in 1941, watching the Nazi bombers in the sky, and reflects on the futility of war and the resilience of human beings. It was presented to Sir David Steel, Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament, on September 17, 1999, and is now on permanent display within the visitors’ centre of the Scottish Parliament.

Mr Martin also formally presented a copy of Ploughman to the Lord Provost of Aberdeen, Margaret Smith for display within the Town House and the Research Institute of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University, as well as the Vietnamese Embassy in London.

Sheena Blackhall is Creative Writing Fellow in Scots at the University’s Elphinstone Institute, and John Easton is a librarian within the University. They have recently published a book called Skin Balaclavas, which features 50 poems by John and 50 by Sheena.

John’s Aberdeen is an important poem within this book. It depicts the city in its great diversity and reflects on the cycle of change that is ongoing. John co-ordinates the Limousine Bull Writers’ Group and the Poetry Group at Aberdeen Central Library.

The Limousine Bull is currently engaged in a project to depict sites throughout Aberdeen in poetic and artistic form. Sheena’s Brig O Balgownie was born of this endeavour. It goes back in time to the myth of Sheela-na-gig and is written in Sheena’s familiar Doric style.

PHOTOCALL: Journalists and photographers are invited to attend the event at the Queen Mother Library tomorrow at 10am. Further information available from Alison Ramsay/Tina Kenworthy on (01224) 273778.

March 7, 2001

University Press Office on telephone +44 (0)1224-273778 or email a.ramsay@admin.abdn.ac.uk.

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