Now Summer Blinks on Flowery Braes

The summer sun blinking on the River Spey in the Scottish Highlands.

Dear Friends,

I'm just back from a wee trip to Scotland, where the new summer sun in the Highlands was beginning to show her face around 4 a.m. and didn't fully descend until after 11 p.m.

Another nice thing about Scotland: It's a country that adores its writers. Last week we visited a delightful little museum in Edinburgh that's devoted to Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson. Tucked in a mansion (which bears the piquant name of "Lady Stair's House"), the museum houses an array of interesting objects, including chairs that belonged to Burns and a white leather glove that may have been worn by his wife. It also features a quote from a letter Burns wrote to James Hoy (the librarian to the Duke of Gordon), in which the poet states, "Those who think that composing a Scotch song is a trifling business – let them try."

Burns's Scotch songs were inspired by traditional tales and lyrics that he made his own. I love the rhythm of his "The Birks of Aberfeldy":

Chorus:
Bonnie lassie, will ye go,
Will ye go, will ye go;
Bonnie lassie, will ye go
To the birks of Aberfeldy?                             (birches)

Now simmer blinks on flowery braes,            (summer)
and o'er the crystal streamlet plays:
Come, let us spend the lightsome days
In the birks of Aberfeldy.

One of the statues of Burns at the Writers Museum.

The Scots love Robert Burns so much that they still celebrate his birthday with special dinners (and a dram or two of whisky) on January 25 each year, but the country is also home to amazing modern voices. Scotland's current national poet is Jackie Kay. Born to a white mother and Nigerian father, Kay was adopted by white parents. In her poem "George Square," she celebrates her adoptive parents, who still participated in a peace march when they were in their late 70s, despite her mother's arthritis and her father's artificial hips. The demonstration took place in Glasgow's George Square, where, Kay writes, the banners were waving "like old friends."

The official title of the national poet of Scotland is "Makar," a Scots word that refers to a writer who's skilled in their craft. Whether we write poetry, fiction or memoir, the quest to become skilled writers is, as Burns said, not a trifling business, but I've found that communities of kind and creative people can make that journey a joyous one.

For women in the Portland area who are looking for some creative inspiration, here are the details for a short but sweet summer session of my women's writing class:

Creative Writing for Women
Mondays, July 16 - August 6
10 - 11:30 a.m.
Taborspace, 5441 SE Belmont
$12 to drop in or $40 for all 4 weeks

Wishing you all a wonderful summer full of lightsome days, wherever they may take ye.