Wayfarers – Gabrielle Barnby
Wayfarers
by Gabrielle Barnby
This collection of poems was inspired by my experiences during collaboration with Orla Stevens to celebrate the centenary of George Mackay Brown. They also mark International Refugee Day, and were shared at the George Mackay Brown Memorial Garden, Stromness, Saturday, 25th June.
An Artist’s Blessing
Forget
Restoration
The Garden
I See Me
Aqua Benedicta
An Artist’s Blessing
May you be open
And playful
As you were as a child,
When the rush of the world
Was yellow,
When ideas mixed fresh
In the palette of your mind.
May you hold new creative thoughts With a careful hand
That shields and protects
The flame of an idea
So it may grow and bloom
When it is ready for all to see.
Until then, may you be patient, Self-compassionate
And curious.
Loving and powerful,
May you seek the path
Of your creative heart.
Gabrielle Barnby September, 2021
For George Mackay Brown creative group students from KGS, and all partners participating in the centenary artwork collaboration.
Forget
Become a layer of paint today
Between sea-blue, sky-blue and bottle-green.
In time, all covered by another layer,
Applied to the wounded gunwale
Compressed, exposed and covered again.
Become sediment
Fodder for time spent scraping and yapping
And keeping old stories alive.
Gabrielle Barnby November, 2021
Restoration
The community saves what it can
The broken ribbed, the rotten about the mouth.
Old bones revealed by tungsten-tipped tools.
Timber that once had living roots,
Supped from soil
Breathed, grew and belonged.
Working hands unwind memories
Tell of past purpose and accident,
And lend future hope.
In the Ness boat shed,
The past is reaffirmed.
The serenity of St Magnus dwells
Beneath the high hailstone battered roof,
There is safety for wayfarers
A place of restoration.
Gabrielle Barnby November, 2021
The Garden
There is an answer in the garden,
Blanketing softly the silent stones,
Green over grey.
Grass combed straight,
Plants tied back,
Paths clear.
The spread of weeds and wildness beyond
Are a poet’s coat of green,
An island tapestry.
The yellow-yellow dandelions
Are suns scattered on a carpet of joy,
Rest here, rest now.
Today, gratitude for tenderness,
For anyone that cares for the stranger,
The lost and displaced.
The garden reaches out its green hands –
There is hope here,
The power to heal and grow.
Gabrielle Barnby June, 2022
In celebration of the George Mackay Brown Centenary and marking International Refugee Day
I See Me
This morning I look in the mirror,
I see a refugee.
She’s putting on face cream and a smile.
Her eyes taper to feline points,
The nose is long.
A Slav is gazing back,
Wearing silver earrings and warm woollen jumper,
Prepared for cold,
For the mixed blessings
Of days and years ahead.
Out of the window
Sparrows flit
In spring, sunlight-lit branches
Still empty of leaves.
It will be the same in Ukraine –
There will be birds,
And there will be a woman
Putting on eyeliner
And preparing for the cold,
And the days and years ahead.
I see a refugee
Gabrielle Barnby
February, 2022
Aqua Benedicta
smell the sea…feel the breeze…be free
So wishes one with a house beside a cold northern sea.
All gathered earth lucency seeps on and out
To the seven bitternesses of the ocean
voices screaming to be heard
a tangled net of nerves
All gathered within one circle
Of light and fire
keep going until it gets better
keep up with friends
at home…in the fields……feel safe
So wishes one with a house beside a cold northern sea.
George Mackay Brown
Advanced Higher English students Danny, Liam, Charlotte, Kadence and Aida
Original text on left, new writing on right.
Arranged by Gabrielle Barnby
December 2021
