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I was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand. When I moved to England in 1973, I loved what I found there because I had read English literature for as long as I could recall. My head was full of descriptions of English landscapes, art, buildings, and history. I came to study English literature, and when I was about to leave Oxford, I met my future husband, who is Scottish, so it was a very fortunate crossover.
In 1999, I was appointed as Director of the Scottish Poetry Library. I’m privileged to be at the heart of literature, and Scottish creativity in that sphere. I feel the need to be an advocate for Scottish literature and Scottish poetry; a poem can say things for us that we can’t articulate for ourselves. It’s immensely consoling to recognise our own emotions; we immediately feel that we’re less isolated, less peculiar, less stupid - because our emotions are being shared and expressed by somebody else.
The Scottish Poetry Library offers sessions to care homes that combine storytelling, reminiscence, and poetry. People have poetry buried in their minds. If your mind is going and I say to you “What’s your name?”, it may be a horrible moment before you remember. But if I say, “Here’s a poem by Wordsworth about daffodils and I’ll read it for you,” they’ll say, “Oh, I remember that my mother grew daffodils," or, “I remember that we learnt that poem when I was 7.”
Migrants are always going to be in a difficult position because when times are hard, as they are now, people look for others to blame. I was very heartened by the example of the Glasgow Girls who banded together and went to Parliament in defence of asylum seekers.
Robyn Marsack
I was born and raised in Wellington, New Zealand. When I moved to England in 1973, I loved what I found there because I had read English literature for as long as I could recall. My head was full of descriptions of English landscapes, art, buildings, and history. I came to study English literature, and when I was about to leave Oxford, I met my future husband, who is Scottish, so it was a very fortunate crossover.
In 1999, I was appointed as Director of the Scottish Poetry Library. I’m privileged to be at the heart of literature, and Scottish creativity in that sphere. I feel the need to be an advocate for Scottish literature and Scottish poetry; a poem can say things for us that we can’t articulate for ourselves. It’s immensely consoling to recognise our own emotions; we immediately feel that we’re less isolated, less peculiar, less stupid - because our emotions are being shared and expressed by somebody else.
The Scottish Poetry Library offers sessions to care homes that combine storytelling, reminiscence, and poetry. People have poetry buried in their minds. If your mind is going and I say to you “What’s your name?”, it may be a horrible moment before you remember. But if I say, “Here’s a poem by Wordsworth about daffodils and I’ll read it for you,” they’ll say, “Oh, I remember that my mother grew daffodils," or, “I remember that we learnt that poem when I was 7.”
Migrants are always going to be in a difficult position because when times are hard, as they are now, people look for others to blame. I was very heartened by the example of the Glasgow Girls who banded together and went to Parliament in defence of asylum seekers.