A Time For Reflection

A time for reflection on the old year and where it’s taken me. Well, to Kerrera, Lismore, Gigha, Coll, Tiree and Easdale for a start, to learn from their Community Trust activities, all different but earnestly tackling similar problems and taking their islands forward. This is what we hope to achieve with our Trust Atlantic Islands Centre here on Luing which would provide a café restaurant gathering place for the community and an exhibition and interpretation centre where islanders and visitors can learn more about the human and natural history of Luing and the other Argyll islands.

My writing also took me to Rothesay and Helensburgh Libraries and the Kilmarnock Burns Club in March to give readings from Slate, Sea and Sky, and to offer poetry workshops at Easdale and Luing Primary Schools which produced lots of good poems by pupils. A very fruitful collaboration with composer, musician and writer Mark Sheridan led to the Atlantic Islands Suite which premiered at the Atlantic Islands Festival here in July and went on to the Belladrum Festival in August, with perhaps more performances next year.

Then there was my ongoing creative partnership with Steve Pardue of Differentia Design which produced seven interpretation panels for the Oban Community Council, which were installed along the sea front in Oban and Ganavan in October, and the poetry rocks further north at Kentallen on the Caledonia Way cycle route. In the course of this I researched and learnt a lot about the history and wildlife of the area and the content of the panels can be seen at http://www.obancircle.org.uk/. Steve’s a great guy to work with, he always seems to get my creative juices going, and having a focus and deadline to meet always helps. I’m looking forward to more of the same next year.

Of course, the high point of the year was the Atlantic Islands Festival which by all accounts was a resounding success and brought outstanding musicians, writers and visual artists to Luing for a full week long programme of events, workshops, walks and talks. The lure of Luing has already brought some of them back and many have kept in touch through Facebook and e-mail and the experience has inspired them in their work and in their lives.

The Scottish Centre for Geopoetics has emerged stronger from this with new members on Luing and an extended and extending core of folk who are taken by the concept and its practice and understand its relevance to their ongoing work. Continuing creative connections with Mark and Marion Sheridan and Richard and Bridie Ashrowan, for example, should bring rich benefits to the development of geopoetics in Scotland and we are already planning weekend events on Islay at the end of February and at Ruskin’s house at Brantwood in Cumbria at the end of May. This last should bring together our members in the North of England and the Borders and hopefully kick-start a group in England.

This new phase in the growth of interest in geopoetics is epitomised for me in my friendship through Facebook with Nat Hall in Shetland, our new furthest north member, whose enthusiasm has already brought a whiff of energising ocean air to our ongoing work. Our continuing discussions with the International Futures Forum based at Aberdour also bode well for the future. This kind of networking and exchange of creative ideas and practice offers encouraging prospects for the development of geopoetics as a global movement.

The Festival was a massive voluntary undertaking and too much to take on every year so we have decided to plan for 2011 instead. I’m hoping that this will enable me to concentrate more on creating new work in poetry and non-fiction over the coming year and I aim to make this a priority in 2010. Healthwise it’s been a pretty good year too - helped by stress relieving holidays in Rhodes, Crete and Germany - and let’s hope that continues. The last night of the year beckons - more thoughts to follow in the New Year.