Dumfries and Galloway Award Winning Poet has joined the fight to keep the Galloway Viking hoard in the region by using his poetry skills to bring attention to the cause.
The Penpont poet put pen to paper after pondering the popular petition pressing for the Hoard to be allocated to Kirkcudbright near to where it was found. The poem “Stars in the Glaur” compares the current economic climate in Galloway to its vibrant past, and makes the point that a treasure buried for 1,000 years in “good Galloway glaur” should be one way of helping to regenerate the local economy – “our future rooted, maybe in our past.”
Hugh has made the poem available for both D&G Council and the independent Galloway Viking Hoard campaign to use. The Petition, which was launched a couple of weeks ago states – Galloway’s Viking Hoard should be displayed in the local area and not be lost to Edinburgh. A crucial decision will be made about where this treasure will be displayed on 23 March 2017, so please add your name urgently to our petition. So far nearly 3000 peoople have signed – your signature can really help this cause, click HERE to sign
Councillor Tom McAughtrie said:
“To have such a nationally respected poet such as Hugh on board means a lot to our efforts in respect of the Viking Hoard. Hugh is one of those Dumfries and Galloway voices heard far beyond the boundaries of the region, and we hope that this short but very pointed poem resonates with those who our Council continues to lobby locally and nationally. We are committed to doing all we can to provide a home for the Galloway Viking Hoard, here in Dumfries and Galloway.”
The poem reads;
Stars in the Glaur
(Viking Treasure Kirkcudbright)
Brochures show panoramas to dream in,
a canvas, a blank page to write on,
no sound, only the bark of a shotgun,
the whispers of the turbines,
the subtler sound of our children,
slipping away like fairies in the Spring.
There was once a people here, faces
like you see in old photographs,
glowering outside their cottages,
their villages neither picturesque nor quiet.
All gone now. We can see the universe
more clearly with no people in the place
but there are still jewels beneath,
mirrors of the stars themselves,
in good Galloway glaur they’re clasped:
our future rooted, maybe, in our past.
