Lunan Bay, Angus 2006
I'm busy doing lots of unbloggable things just now... but last night I went to the local folk club and enjoyed a night listening to Scots-Canadian David Francey and that I can tell you about! It was my second time hearing Francey (lots of other folk singers cover his songs too) and it was a lovely night, almost magical in its way. This is one of his older songs... it's about love in high school (lots of high school change going on here...):
That version is sort of live-but-not-live but proper-live he is a very engaging performer and I recommend you catch a show if you can. He's on the road a lot!
The locals did some good work at the folk club too last night so there was some lovely singing and sharing of songs (and here's me been a bit out of love with the song lately – shocker – and listening to lots of instrumentals). I read two poems aloud – the one that's in the current issue of Gutter and also an old love poem that I realise now has never been on-blog called "Free love". It is in my book "More about the song" (old friend now, from 2008) and it was prompted by, amongst other things, a trip Mark and I made to local beauty spot Lunan Bay some years back. Lunan is one of many beautiful local bays and beaches on the Angus coast but it was our nearest giant sandy beach when we first moved up and so we spent a lot of time there back then. This summer I've been back there more again because a new café has opened just by the beach and (a) a friend works there so I pop in to see here (oh and eat cake...) and (b) they've been selling my cards and books too (quite a lot of them too which is nice). There are some details of the café/shop here (though they won't be open for the winter – closing mid October for the season, I think) and my Lunan (and other things) poem is below. Francey sings a lot about love so let's have a love fest while we can. Any excuse.
Free love
You can keep your twenty grand weddings
With the limos and jazz bands and suits
Give me that day we cycled to Lunan Bay
The hot sun, the empty beach
The lying in a mansize cup of sand in the dunes
The cycling home again the long way round
You can keep the diamond ring in platinum
The weighty jewel from a far-off mine
I'll take a handful of that icing sugar snow
That shines up on a sunny winter morning
Now that's what you can call sparkle
It's hard to find, harder still to keep
I'm sure love is not about the price
The menus or the pantomime
Love is the days when everyone's tired
But still no-one gets the blame
Love lies around the house quietly
Waiting, so quietly, to be needed
RF 2006
14 comments:
'The lying in a mansize cup of sand in the dunes' love this line and love that beach!
We do have amazing beaches here... and that cup of sand was real... no poetic imagination required. It's a very strong memory - one of those really great days out.
x
I love those last two lines...they sum up the happily content aspect of love.
The picture was like a mini-vacation. Thank you.
Love love love the poem! We had the big to-do back when we got married (almost 22 years ago!), but I think if I got married now it would be a MUCH quieter affair. Of course, my mom isn't here anymore & that's who the big wedding was for anyway. We wrote our own vows - that wouldn't change. Because for us it really was all about the love :)
Feel those words could be posted up on a notice board in our house - and probably many more Rachel. Although the odd diamond ring might be a nice surprise too!
Well, it was suggested to me yesterday that I should put this poem on a postcard... it's been a while since I've put any new cards out. So I'll try to get this one ready for next summer!
I've never been a jewelry person, Weaver! The odd bit of hippy decoration but nothing expensive... plus everything I've ever heard about the diamond business has been negative ("Blood Diamond" anyone?).
x
Unbloggable? Unthinkable!
Love the poem.
I thought somebody might pick me up on that... and it's true... some things are unbloggable!
Does this mean you don't own my book yet, SW? Shame on you if so!
x
Some things may not be bloggable, but most things are floggable, Rachel! Thanks for the reminder, and I'll order a copy as soon as I can.
Well, it has been out for 4 years...
x
Oh such a wonderful poem! And the last two lines! Gorgeous :)
Rachel, this poem is gorgeous, just gorgeous. I particularly like the lines about being tired but no one being to blame, they resonate so. And the cup of sand is a wonderful image.
I, too, have a few unbloggable things going on at the moment, one huge one that I'm desperate to share but can't. And I often worry that when I do blog I blog the unbloggable. So hard, sometimes, to draw a/the line between private and shareable.
There's not a poem in the book I don't like! Fabulous photograph - Angus is pretty spectacular in the coast department, and the fact that there is now a cafe on a beach makes it sound even better.
God, most of my life is unbloggable. Work is absolutely unbloggable, personal friendships, village shenanigans, the fact I like crap horror films at about 1am on Saturday nights... shit, I've said it now.
You're all very kind.
x
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