Donna Ray

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30 January at 15:54
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If you're north of the border people,the lovely Rose Fraser Ritchie will not disappoint!

Review is about Federation of Writers (Scotland) Meet the Makar on 22 Feb 2016 (event)

Tartantights's Blog
by Gayle Smith.

The Poetry, Politics, and General Musings Of A Cultured Kind Of Citizen

Mrs Burns Night Was A Night With The Girls And That Would Scare The Pants Off A Poet

Hey Readers This time last week it was the day after one of the most enjoyable Burns celebrations I’ve ever been part of. However this was no ordinary Burns night this was a celebration with a twist. Confused? don’t worry, I can and will explain all and in doing so inform you as to what made this event so unique and so different from any other Burns night I’ve attended.

The event was held in The Merlin hotel in Edinburgh which hosts a regular spoken word night on the fourth Monday of each month and was organised by the ever so likable force of nature that is Rose Fraser Ritchie. Entitled Mrs Burns Night this was a wonderful night of poetry and music and most importantly a celebration of the strong women in the life of our national bard. As part of the brief we were encouraged to write poems from the point of view one of Rob’s lassies.

To be honest I thought I would find this to be a real challenge and possibly beyond my range of abilities. This however was not the case and I managed to write not one but two poems on the topic both of which were written and given debut performances on the night as part of a set which included my unique take on the address to a Haggis entitled To A Curry.

With regards to meeting the brief, I have to admit I even impressed myself as both in content and style the two poems couldn’t have been more different. In the first of them I write from the perspective of Rob’s wife who sits at home waiting for him to come home and worried that he may be up to something with some impressionable young lass whilst making her promises he knows he will never keep. In contrast the second of my debuted poems relates the story of a girl telling her girlfriend’s the story of why despite temptation she rejected this man’s amorous advances and turned down his proposal of marriage and I have to say they went down rather better than I’d dared to hope.Well I don’t know about others but I’m always a wee bit nervous when performing new material so I think cracking a few one liners before I started reading them may have helped to set the scene. This is especially true when I said that I think our Robert who had or at least appeared to have a different woman for every night of the week died not from consumption as widely believed but from exhaustion. Now I’m not sure why, but this joke seemed to go down very well with the girls in attendance. Well let’s be honest, a man’s a man in more ways than one and sometimes more ways than are good for him.

Talking of the girls I have to say that though a number of the acts were new to me I was entertained by a lot of strong woman giving voice to their truths and was very impressed by what I heard. This was especially true of Nuala a softly spoken Yorkshire lass whose poetry was so good that I and my fellow weegie and travelling companion Lesley McKay (Traynor) were busy trying to organise a Glasgow side to her poetic social diary.

Mention also must be of the work and of musician May McCloud, and the words and music of my fellow Donegal football fan Michelle Hogg who when we weren’t talking girl talk seemed impressed by my knowledge of Gaelic games and my commitment to the boys in green and gold and told me of a dramatic conversation during the referendum when she made the journey from no to yes. Now I don’t know why, but I always enjoy hearing of these Damascus like moments and believe me you won’t find many travelling in the other direction.

This was a wonderful occasion and the relaxed informal atmosphere meant it was just like spending a good few hours with your friends. I particularly enjoyed playing my part in Rita Bradd’s hilarious version of The Three Crows which tells a sorry tale of how the birds journeyed from Edinburgh to Dumfries to attempt to nibble at the bard’s birthday feast at a rather select venue in Alloway only to pick off more than they could swallow which made them very unpopular with the diners. So as soon as they were able get airborne the birds flew with fuller stomachs than the guests back home to Edinburgh.

Rita’s hilarious adaptation of this very Scottish tale_ was excellently narrated by Lesley and her tune on the Clarsach was one of my personal highlights of a thoroughly entertaining event which was rounded off by everyone who wanted to taking the stage for one final performance. For my final poem of what was a truly inspiring evening I chose not a Burns related poem but a trans related one, The Road To New Beginnings which tells of my decision to life as the woman I had always known myself to be and more important shows a glimpse in to the woman who had procrastinated for too long to please other people rather than live my life my way Eventually though I did take that road not to high heeled shoes and low cut dresses but to a life of what my mother would a proper woman whatever that means to life of a kirk going lass who can still be as daring as the next girl to life I love and wouldn’t swap for anything

At the end of the night Lesley very kindly gave me a lift back home to Glasgow and as we chatted and put to rights the wrongs of the world I thought to myself the reason I enjoyed Mrs Burns Night as much as I did was because it was a night with the girls and we ladies all know what can happen on a night like that. Aye it would be enough to scare the pants off a poet so it would.

Love And Best Wishes
Gayle X

Review is about Federation of Writers (Scotland) Meet the Makar on 22 Feb 2016 (event)

Reviews


"10/10 to Rose Fraser Ritchie and May Macleod for organising another enjoyable Federation of Writers (Scotland) open mic night at The Merlin in Edinburgh and 10/10 to the staff for the tasty bar meal and drinks and quality function suite venue" - Erik Zoha, Dundee.


"It was a lovely evening, full of great poetry, beautiful guitar playing, humour and warmth. Martin Stepek, Hamilton. - Author of Mindful Poems of hope and experience. www.flemingpublications.com"

Review is about Federation of Writers (Scotland) Meet the Makar on 23 Nov 2015 (event)