I hae juist the nou pitten ma entry for the McCash Poetry Competition in an envelope. I dinnae normally get ma competition entries in that aheid o time, but I'm awa neist week ower the deidline. It juist happenit that I had ae-twae ideas in ma heid that fittit in wi the competition's theme when I seen the announcement in The Herald a whilie syne. Yon wis a piece o guid fortune I hivnae had afore wi this competition. The last time it happenit wis wi the poetry postcaird competition for national poetry day in 2002, an I wis yin o the winners yon time. I'm pretty cantie wi the poems I'm sendin in, but we'll see whether they get onywhaur!
The theme is "This is my own, my native land," a line fae Walter Scott's lang narrative poem, "The Lay of the Last Minstrel". It seems a bittie queer-like that a Scots poetry competition shuid tak a quotation in English for its theme, whaiver wrote it, but it's a guid subject tae get fowk screivin aboot at a sic time o muckle political chynge.
Speakin o the political chynge, there nae dout in ma mind that hit has led tae a shift in the atmosphere o Scotland. Ither fowk's sayin the yae thing and I hae anecdotal evidence: I wis bletherin wi a frein that wirks in the Pairlament's education service a day or twa syne, an she tellt me that, since the election, there aye queues for tickets for tae get in and see the Pairlament in action, even for debates ither nor First Meinister's quaistions. It's a hale ither quaistion gif this confidence, interest an momentum will bide or dwine and dee, but wi The Herald gettin a forum anent the constitutional future o the nation roadit and giein it's poetry competition ower tae discussion whaur we are the nou as a kintrae, I'm hopefu it'll bide a bittie.
