Poet’s Passion Keeps Spirit of Wallace live Scots Makar Marks Hero’s AnniversaryA

LESLEY DUNCAN LINES FOR WALLACE The national poet of Scotland BY EDWIN MORGAN has written a work to mark the 700th anniversary of William Is impregnated and Wallace’s death. Is it not better to forget? Edwin Morgan impregnates. asked to It is better not to forget. was contribute a poem Oh that too is sharp and shrill to an Betrayal never to be anthology marking the And some cannot stand it anniver forgotten, sary of the hero's And some would never allow it execution in Vindictiveness never to be London on August And same would rather die 23, 1305. forgotten, When first approached, For the regulated music the Triumphalism never to be laurete, or maker, was polite Of Zamyatin’s Polyhymnia forgotten. but non-committal. However, the Where nothing can go wrong. Body parts displayed at the remarkable lines for Wallace different points of the Cinema sophisticates were then sent to the compilers compass, Fizzed with disgust at the almost immediately. This latest crudities Between hanging and hacking. by the 85 year-old may surprise The worst, the Braveheart held out to them. readers with its eloquence and disembowelling. Over the cheeks of some passion. When the question in the Blood raised in him,fervent. [Were they less sophisticated?) first line of the new poem - "Is A tear slipped unbidden. Blood raced in him, fervent. it not better to forget?" - is Blood razed in him, for ever Oh yes it did. I saw it. countered by a negative, it is The power of Wallace fervent in its death. clear that Wallace is not going Cuts through art Far Burns was right to see it to be consigned to the resting' But art calls attention to it was, not only in the field ground of old unhappy far-off That Scots would follow this Badly or well things and battles long ago. man In your room, in the street "Betrawal never to be forgotten, , With blades and war-horns Even by god if it came to it, vndictiveness never to be for- On a battlefield, got Sharp and shrill ten, triumphalism never to be , Think about it. forgotten. But with brains and books Remember him. Where the idea of liberty

The poet himself was a ‘bit surprised” The poem goes on to consider the positive imp- He has two new books on the way. The first, a at how strongly the poem emerged. He lications of Wallace’s life as seen by Burns who play based on the Gilgamesh Legend, is due to said “It’s a very touchy subject…with all identified him with ideals of liberty and freedom. be published by Carcanet in November. sorts of pitfalls.” Morgan tilts at those who “fizzed with disgust The other, a new collection of poems, is called However Morgan, who recently handed at the crudities” of the film Braveheart, saying A Book of Lives, although it is unlikely to be as over his post as Glasgow’s Poet Laureate “The power of Wallace/Cuts through art/ but art autobiographical as his 2003 volume, Love and to Liz Lochhead, said he believed he had calls attention to it/ Badly or well.” a Life. negotiated them. He said that as soon as Despite being diagnosed with cancer six years he started writing, “he got very, very in- ago, Morgan remains immensely productive. He 1 Edwin Morgan passed away in 2010 at the age of 90. volved”, adding that everything about continued writing more poems on public subjects Wallace made it hard not to feel strongly in the last couple of years, and said there was a The Wallace Muse: Poems and Artwork In- moved. However the poet denied he could "Kind of obligation to make yourself a sort of spired by the Life and Legend of William Wal- be fanning anti-English sentiment. "I spokesperson.” 1 lace is compiled by Lesley Duncan and don’t think so.” He responded mildly. Elspeth King and published by Luath Press at ₤7.99.