Every year the National Galleries of Scotland run a competition called Inspired? Get writing! for children and adults. Port Ellen has 2 successful poems. Abbie was a runner up with her Poem The Ghost Fiddler, inspired by a photo of Aly Bain by David Williams. Asher achieved a special merit for his poem Old Defence, based on a painting of Inverlochy Castle by Horatio McCulloch. Both have been invited to hear their poems read aloud at an awards ceremony at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh on the 17th April.
Here are the two poems:
THE GHOST FIDDLER
In the center of a humid room,
Sat a figure hunched close to his fiddle,
Moonlight gleaming, his body glows,
Body bitter and cold, heart scorched by music,
His instrument in gentle, airy hands, notes drift like phantoms.
The room awakens, comes alive,
Louder, louder, the room screams with anticipation,
Its eyes dance to the energetic melody,
The soft, faint feet are tapping, thumping the rhythm,
As the room dances to his tune.
Stop.
The room falls to a sudden stillness,
The majestic figure sits in complete silence again,
Drifting away into the dark,
Like his last notes fading into the heart of the room.
By Abbie
OLD DEFENCE
An elderly defence,
Confronting a forceful hill,
Protecting a village from destruction,
Now smoke stacks curl,
Weavers weave,
Fishermen fish just for fun,
Once mighty land of feasts and splendour,
Is now just a traveller’s rest.
The Loch is poisoned,
With a potion of inattention,
Blinding one’s eyes from danger,
Discarding the view of marching armies,
Watching for unclaimed lands,
The slumbering dragon rests behind,
In a million year slumber it reposes,
Preparing itself for plunder,
A storm gathering, engulfing the sky,
Like wisps of a snoring volcano,
Isolating the village from help.
As if on the banks of Loch Ness,
A stronghold remains searching,
For a long ago enemy,
Waiting for its time to strike.
By Asher
