Another Muckle wind

some random thoughts as we lay in bed listening to a great wind outside

(The setting - some thoughts engendered by an overnight winter hurricane battering our house in the village of Kettle. Built in 1746 - the year of the battle of Culloden, when an English army led by the Duke of Cumberland (the butcher!) defeated the Scottish army of Bonnie Prince Charlie. In 1843 the breakaway Free Church was formed and one was built beside our house. Later our house became where births, deaths and marriages were registered.)

 

Another muckle wind

 

A crescent sliver of moon            (muckle-great)

and dazzling Venus slipped

down to astonish western lands

but now the wind and rain

from the selfsame west is trying to

blow the f….out of us

 

Our house is gie old                (gie-very)

and we’ve been told

that some rotten sandstone

from a quarry just up the brae          (brae-hill)

was used, abused a better word

to build this dwelling

 

within which the guid wife and I     (guid "good)

are presently ensconced

listening to the wind

but its still here

crumbling slowly back

tae sand that dinosaurs

colossal, trod

in far-off times

dank tropic climes

 

perhaps when raucous craws         (craws-crows)

first crowed upon our crows-steps

(and they’re still here with the jackdaws

chuckling in and out o’ the chimney pots)

bloody Cumberland’s butcher boys       

in red of empire (and blood of Scot)

marched south past our house in Kettle

to leave a ravaged population ahent    (ahent - behind)

ethnic cleansing we call it now!

 

But that’s all in past

Isn’t it?

 

Now we’re wall tae wall

TV Ipod android crap

MacLaptop MP3 

Wii Wii 

all pish!

All ££££££!

young and old indulge

while Thatcher and Cameron’s

own butcher boys do their worst (or best)

to fleece the poor

 

I digress again ……..

The wind is getting up

(and I wont even mention the four brussel sprouts!)

We’re telt by all                   (telt - told)

That global warming’s

the scientists warning

of dire consequences to come

Think big - mass extinctions (including us!)

if we don’t get real

and cut emissions

 

I’m trying hard to use my bus pass

But, big but …

We’re off to Tenerife for Christmas

and many say do nothing!

The Chinese are building

a coal fired power station every 3 minutes!

Or so the deniers tell us!

 

The wind is blowing a gale now

I’m bloody scared again

last time two muckle branches      (muckle - big)

blew off our 24 rooknest sycamore

and dunted the hoose!                     (dunt - hit)

 

Planted nearly two hundred years ago

when the Kirk next door was built

In 1843 I believe

when neighbours fell out about

some doctrinal issue

that seemed important at the time

(don’t they all!)

 

Of course even the church itself is long gone

and anyway they’re all well and truly ‘Free’ now!

 

Our hoose became where

happy hatches, lovey matches

and dour Scots dispatches

were written down for posterity

 

The rain is belting down hard now

doing its best to wash away

the crumbling sands of time

Lime render

would have been better!

Perhaps we’ll just hang on for a year or two more

and see  Scotland a nation again!

 

Alan Graham

 

Reviews

[Alethea Morgan]

I adore this, the translations were very helpful. My ancestors were from Ireland, and although this speaks of the Scots, I have always loved anything to do with that area. Very well done. Glad I had the opportunity to have read this.

Be well!
-Ali

[alanwgraham]

Thanks Ali, for taking the time to read this. I'm glad you enjoyed it - since my first version i have toned down the Scots language and added the preface to set the scene. It seems to have helped and after all if your readers don't understand what it is about it defeats the purpose. I've had a quick look at your writing which is very intriguing but i'll be back for a closer look and write a review soon.
Cheers,
Alan

[Robert Francis Callaci]

I understood your poem perfectly well, the aside translations was a bonus.

Free verse at its best, I felt Scotland, its history, its people. I heard the thick Scottish accent buzzing through my ears, I thought of kilts and bagpipes. I saw the fog and heard the winds. One mighty fine piece of poetry with a bit of history thrown in ....


warmest
bob

[alanwgraham]

Thanks Bob. I'm very pleased that you got this. It came out as a kind of stream of consciousness thing which by its nature rambled a bit. After I first loaded it I added the explanation at the top to help the reader a bit.
Regards, alan

[hi]

wow to me this was hardto understand,but i get it,not my kind of poem but if all poems were the same then it would be no point in reading different ones.
good read,i really should try rading one of your stories

[alanwgraham]

Hello again, thanks for reading this. I am sorry that you had difficulty with this one. It is written with a lot of Scots dialect that, I realise, will make it difficult. Also there is not a single story running through it, but thoughts that came into my mind that night of the great wind. Thanks again.
Alan

[hi]

no need to say sorry,it is a poem,if i cant understand it then i need to up my game,not you,to me it's kinda neat only somepeople can read it,it is like it is some kind of secret code,i got to break the code,lol

[barleygirl]

I've read other of your pieces with "translations" off to the side, but this one is much more clearly-done & easier to follow without distraction from the message. This feels like it's being told by a very old person whose mind wanders off on tangents constantly (maybe that would be YOU? *smile*) . . . at times I forget what the story is about, even tho it's all interesting & well-told. Finally, the last stanza wraps it up by bringing me back to the storm at hand -- oh yeah! this is where we started all this meandering. You pick out some of the most unusual & far-fetched aspects of history to share, which makes this more interesting than most historical reads, which usually make my eyes glaze over.

[alanwgraham]

Thanks for taking this on! I appreciate that you are taking on a 'pig in a poke' (don't know if this is also an american saying!) when you tackle one of mine! You probably picked up that this was one of an 'eruption' of free verse that saw the light of day when I was high some time ago. I have done my best to only upload those that I think might connect with someone! You really wouldn't make much sense of the others! The reviews I've had have more or less confirmed this. Its also good that we can talk about health issues now that formerly had great stigma attached to them. This poem was a kind of stream of consciousness thing which just popped out. I added the preamble to make the whole thing slightly more intelligible.
Thanks again Barleygirl - we are currently sweltering in a temp of 20 degrees!