E Y E W E A R, THE BLOG - FREEDOM MEANS BEING UNAFRAID TO WRITE WHAT YOU THINK

EYEWEAR'S POET PENNY BOXALL WINS £20,000 FOR THE BIENNIAL EDWIN MORGAN POETRY AWARD FOR SHIP OF THE LINE ! WE ARE OVER THE MOON!

As the world now knows - sadly or happily depending on your affiliations and ideals - the majority of voters in Scotland have said No to the question of whether Scotland should be governed as a separate country, and thus leave the "United Kingdom" of four nations. Tellingly, the pound soared on the news, and David Cameron looked pleased. Anything which makes financiers and Cameron happy is likely to be suspect. I wanted a Yes vote, because I cannot imagine any good reason why the Scottish people, with one of the major cultures of Western Europe, are unable to govern themselves, and because I believe that he governs best who governs least far from home. Far-flung empires and federations are never as accountable to their citizens as more local governments, which are usually preferable, except where state or provincial urges tend to the unethical (one thinks of segregation in the Deep South). In this case, the Scottish government seemed motivated by a rather benign sense of...

"I will be voting Yes in the Scottish Independence referendum for a variety of well publicised reasons – to kick back against the dismantling of the welfare state by successive Labour and Tory governments; to put an end to being ruled by governments that don’t reflect the Scottish vote; the disarmament of nuclear weapons (as the crow flies, Faslane is around seven miles from where I live). However the most fundamentally important reason for me as to why I’ll be voting Yes is the hope that the depressing sense of political disenfranchisement I currently feel, and have done for some time, will end with the establishment of a Scottish government invested with the powers essential to listen and ability to act upon the voice of the Scottish people. As a former politics student and former active member of a political party it is not in my nature to be politically apathetic but the sense that my voice has not been heard, is not heard and, crucially, will never be heard by...

As someone who had three grandparents with Scottish roots (one was a Fraser, the other a Hume, and the third, my paternal grandmother, was born in Motherwell), I am a British-Canadian with 75% Scottish ancestry (the last fourth is English - my paternal grandfather Stanley was a Cockney born in London) - so I feel some interest in the upcoming referendum on Scottish independence.  I was opposed to Quebec separation, for the same reasons I am in favour of Scottish secession - history.  Quebec, although colonised by the French over 450 years ago, was soon after defeated by the British; but ultimately belongs to the native Canadians who had lived there for tens of thousands of years, and still do in great numbers; the Crown promised these peoples their lands in perpetuity as they agreed to become Canadian.  In Scotland, the indigenous peoples are the Scottish themselves, and, while there are complex reasons for the entanglement of the destinies of Scotland and England, i...

The news is startling if inspiring: Scotland's greatest modern poet, Edwin Morgan , has left a million pounds to the SNP , for the campaign for an independent Scotland.  Poetry Has Made Something Happen?  Hopefully.

A CHESS BOARD EXPERIENCES BAD WEATHER On the labour strikes against foreign workers in the UK, February 2009. Rain drives down, a perfect tilt diagonal, forty-five degrees. Snow heaves itself across, a spirit-level’s eerie grasp of fluids and forces on the horizontal. Rain and snow in simulcast, refusing to mix until impact shatters their self-belief, the illusion of selfhood, the repressed bigotry latent beneath histrionic claims of nationality. Outside Sellafield the rain and snow still fall separately. Workers strike, refuse the right of other men to work along with them. A working man will stop another working, throw his pottery chip into the urn alongside his countrymen, any and all countrymen as though he has more in common with his boss who is English, than with his colleagues who aren’t. How many pawns bedeck a standard chess board and how many kings? How many pawns are tricked into laying themselves down, numbly creating paths with their coats for queens to walk upon? F...

Yesterday's elections in Scotland yielded an historic result: Alex Salmond , leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), will now have the majority needed to hold a referendum on independence.  Salmond's party has followed the strategy laid-out for them by the PQ, in Quebec, who held several referendums, but never quite managed to achieve the majority to fulfill their dream.  As an Anglo-Quebecer and Canadian, I was opposed to a separatist Quebec, a distinct province with a significant history that was better served in the federation - but I do welcome the chance Salmond offers his people for their own vote.  It seems obvious that Scotland has the culture, infrastructure, and history, to deserve a say in its own governance, and to determine whether it will remain within the UK or become its own country in the EU, like the Republic of Ireland, or Portugal.  Economics or fear may hinder the dream, but it may not - we might see a liberated Scotland in the next four yea...

No one seems to know who will or should fill the inestimably vast boots of Edwin Morgan , who was the greatest living Scottish poet, when he died.  His position as Makar is now open , but as it was custom-made for him, no one else is quite right (yet) for it, and new tailorings need to be applied, it seems.  Enter the usual roll call of prize-winning names, as per The Guardian piece.  Not mentioned in the Guardian piece were Roddy Lumsden, Richard Price, John Glenday , Jen Hadfield , WN Herbert , AB Jackson , or Robert Crawford - but adding them to the list that was given, of Don Paterson, Kathleen Jamie, Douglas Dunn, Liz Lochhead, Robin Robertson, Jackie Kay , and John Burnside - shows the richness of the potential short-list.  I suspect either Dunn, Paterson or Robertson will get this, ultimately - but Herbert follows most closely in the steps of Morgan as inventive explorer.

Terribly sad news - Edwin Morgan - Britain's greatest living poet - has died aged 90.  A titan, though modest and infinitely gentle and humourous, his broadly exploratory genius for styles and tones was unique and refreshing in a tradition often emphasising a singularity of voice and a monolothic vision, and clearly paved the way for Muldoon, Herbert, Paterson and others, who developed his sense of play and verve. Heterogenous in talent, wildly inventive, funny and smart, he was the current genius of the British language, and it is a sad footnote which records that he failed to be awarded a TS Eliot prize while living - though less deserving, younger poets did, for lesser collections.  He was admirable for exploring, however obliquely, his homosexuality - in a culture which does not tend to openly celebrate gay poetry - in short, he was the cross-ocean Ashbery of this clime, and more. I once wrote him a poem and it was published in Scotland.  He read it, and appare...

Sad news.  Scotland-born American baseball player Bobby Thomson has died in the dog days of summer.  He hit the most famous home run in the sport - the shot heard around the world - which allowed the Giants to win the pennant .  The event has been immortalised in various films and books, not least Underworld .

Graham Hardie has alerted me to the rise of the new iteration of The Scottish Poetry Review - an online rattle-bag of poems, reviews, and other stuff about the burgeoning Scottish poetry world (which is arguably more impressive than its countrparts in Northern Ireland, Wales and England, these days). The review of Rain is particularly bold.

Eyewear congratulates Professor Don Paterson , Scotland's leading male poet, on his youthful win of the Queen's Gold Medal for Poetry. He must be one of the youngest winners - it's an honour often reserved for elder poets. The poet put forward must have the laureate's blessing, and Scotland's leading female poet, Carol Ann Duffy , clearly felt an affinity. Besides the Scottish, Picador and generational links, Duffy and Paterson were key mainstream poets of the 90s and 00s who saw off the threat of Heaney and Muldoon and created a new populist vernacular style. Paterson, who doesn't - judging by his editorial and critical writings - much like the poetry of Dylan Thomas, Prynne , or amateur and anti-war poets, is as admired in the UK as he is controversial. Is he the new king of the cats or prince in waiting? Surely, his North American reputation is set to grow. I predict he will win the Nobel Prize for literature before 2020.

Those watching the events of the last few days, in which a principled, upright and devout lawyer stood up to his community to do the right thing, might think they were watching a Scottish version of To Kill A Mockingbird , or even, a play by Ibsen . More Ibsen than Lee , methinks, if only because such moral decisions always have deeper roots and more ambiguous, even tragic results, than intended. It is not enough to be moral, you might say - you must also be wise. A few refreshing things have emerged from this incident of the convicted mass murderer's release - a chance to see Scotland act as a government on the world stage, and a chance to hear Christianity openly discussed as a tool for making decisions. These good things have been offset, though, by the damage done. As others have already observed, mercy needn't be excessive to be true, and there is nothing in the Bible, or Sermon on the Mount, about releasing murderers from jail (other than Barabbas ). Indeed, the early (...

I've been reading Roddy Lumsden's fifth collection, Third Wish Wasted , which was launched on Friday. It's seriously good. Or rather, playfully good. Or both. Is there a better mainstream poet of his British generation, currently practicing now? Many might think so, I am not so sure. This new book is so full of word games, and new forms ( charismatics , for instance), and delights for the mind and ear. The poems are rich, sonorous, and always musical - though music varies, and so do these poems. Music, of course, is Lumsden's favoured realm - as is love, from sour to sweet - and how song and love merge well. This isn't a review, just a tip of the hat. Anyone reading Lumsden's work is likely to learn a few tricks of the trade. His growing oeuvre is increasingly exciting. I'd say he was a poet's poet, but his work is popular with more than just poets. Meanwhile, a whole younger generation of London-area poets has been tutored by him, and made...

Osprey , a thriving new Scottish online journal, has a new issue out. Bird lovers everywhere, have a look.

Chapman 109 is just out, with a cover feature on Stewart Conn , at 70. Chapman is "Scotland's quality literary magazine" and I am glad to note that I have six poems in the current issue. Do check out their site at www.chapman-pub.co.uk and subscribe. As per an earlier post, it is important to support the magazines that form, and inform, poetry in the UK.