Orkney

A Year and a Day

By this time next year the Orkney 2025 Island Games will have had its first day of competition. There will already be winners and losers, moments of success and disappointment will have passed. After observing many hours of youngsters playing sports, primarily football, I feel that while winning is the aim, losing really is where […]

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Carduelis carduelis

Carduelis carduelis ‘All of life is sacrament.’ I was told this central tenant of Quaker belief by a fellow poet and past pupil of catholic school. ‘I love that,’ I replied, and took a sip of the newly sacramental coffee in the cup before me. I felt glad for this small revelation, it chimed with […]

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Hampden Park – BRAW WORDS

Braw Words – The Hampden Park Collections I’m delighted to be the new Maker of the Braw Words collection at the Hampden Collections where football and poetry link up. I can’t wait to cheer on all the youngsters who have a shot at writing or finding poems and submitting them to Braw Words. Football and […]

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Winter Findings

Last night the ‘Merry with Flame and Song’ creative course came to its conclusion. The session was on-line after unexpected heavy snowfall over Orkney the night before. It was a happenstance occurrence that both disrupted but also gifted richness to the session as memories of a changed world were fresh in participant’s minds. The final […]

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January, still

If I could shorten one month it would be January. But then would I also truncate February and halve March? I have an eagerness for the light that makes these dark days a time of restlessness. Partly I wish to hibernate, partly to defy the bleak mid-winter dark and be active and busy.  To relieve […]

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Gabrielle Barnby