Nationheid?

Fit name
For the handfae dirt
Ye’re stannin on?

Fit name
For air or weather,
Yer ain face looking through ane
As ye breathe the ither in?

Fit name
Div ye cry geology
An aa its scartit lanskips
Or the sea fa’s clouds lift up
Wi rain tae full the lochans,
An fit for the sma, dernt burns
Slidin stane-deep and gulliet
Aa the wye back tae sea again?

For fa’s story shoud we be tellin
At gab o winter or simmer dim?

Fitna name
Is the name for oor history
An for them fa’s names
Are spoken in’t, spoken o,
spoken for, spoken
By ivry lip and tongue.

Fit ane o them echos maist
In the fog-beardit wids
In some wild and uncommon grazins,
Lowdent but wi the girse still growin?

Ower mony wards hiv run
Lik burn-watter, thir soond sypin
In the park loanins; aye, ower mony
For ae tale alane to be the hale o’t:
Aa oor twistin clash tells itsel
An, lug tae lug, bigs the wappin lair
O oor greenin ower hame an grun.

Nation? Nationheid?

Fitna name daur I spik?
Foo could I pit tee some -ism at the en o’t
And cleck some faction of masel an mine
Far youse and yours hiv nae place?

I could nivver say,
‘Is grund belangs tae me,
Nae mair than I could say,
The air is mine as I breathe’t in;
Nor mine again as I breathe’t oot.

© BH, 2018

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In July, I wrote ‘Nation?’ In English and about the vexed question of nation versus mationalism. I’m not in favour of the latter but, even more now, I believe internationalism and shared cultures depend on cultures being alive.and not bland, theme park stumps of history.

And so, I rewrote, no reworked, the older poem into this in Scots. After the turn of the year we’ll be into Burns territory. This maybe is  sign of our times. Or it’s challenge. How to be culturally strong and embrace the world with open arms. Think on’t.