Journal, Poems

Here’s to that mouse

On Friday the 13th of January 2017 I attended my first Burns Supper of the season, hosted by Helensburgh Burns Club. I will complete my third year as secretary for the club in May and, as we draw performers from a selection of guests and from within the club, that meant I was invited to do “whatever I liked” by this year’s president, Geoff.

That’s quite an open remit, but when I was asked earlier the previous year I had a good idea of what I would like to perform. The first Burns’ poem that I learnt was To a Mouse and I have always been fond of it. In early 2016 I had the idea of writing a reply on behalf of the titular mouse and this eventually became my poem, Fae a Mouse. So that and the work that inspired it became the core of what I would do and as fortune would have it, with our club supper being so close to the festive season, I could open with I’m Really Glad Xmas Is Over which I had written during the festive season of 2015.

At our St Andrew’s Night I had to read the poems I performed because I just wasn’t confident enough in my ability to recite them off by heart. The fact I did drew some gentle criticism which I happily accepted. I really had no excuse for not learning my own poems properly!

This time around I had put a lot more practice in and could probably have done all three without any cues. That’s tempting fate when you’re drinking though, so I printed my two out and put extra effort into getting To a Mouse learned. In the event I stumbled once on that one – it was going so well it seemed too good to be true, so I checked I was doing okay with one of our past presidents!
I received some really good feedback on my poems. A couple of people asked for copies and a lady who is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe asked for a copy of Fae a Mouse because she wanted to use it there.

I couldn’t be much happier with how my part of the night went. It’s both rewarding and a relief when you perform something you’ve written and have it be so well received.

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Poems

I’m really glad Xmas is over

I had the idea for this poem in early December 2015 when it felt like the festive period had been going on for far too long already. The intention was to sound as if I was being a big spoilsport and hating on Xmas, before turning around to show I was just excited that Burns’ season was upon us.

When I showed it to him, my friend Degsy helped with the wording of the first verse, as the original version was a bit awkward to say out loud, even if it read okay. That’s a trap I’m getting better at avoiding, but here I welcomed his feedback and I think I fixed it.

My target audience were the cronies at Glasgow Haggis Club, so I read it as part of my turn at the first meeting of 2016 and it appeared to be well received.

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Journal

Another Burns season done and dusted

In the years since I got involved in doing a turn at Burns’ Suppers, I’ve been to all sorts of takes on them. From the grand affairs with over 100 people packed into a splendid hall to those held in people’s homes. To me, so long as people enjoy a bit of Burns and have a good time, it doesn’t really matter what the scale or venue or conformity to tradition is.

My 2015 Burns season comprised of five very different events and I enjoyed each of them in different ways. Which is why I thought I’d give my account of them here, so that I might look back in years to come and be reminded of an almost perfect collection of ways to celebrate Robert Burns.

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