Faeries and Fyre
Dancing and piping, singing the old songs
With faeries, dryads and all the lesser spirits,
Telling ancient tales passed hand to hand,
Fathers to sons, mothers to daughters
All the village bairns seated at their knee.
Hearken to tales that came from beyond the sea
Hearken to stories that speak to me now.
Sail back cross the ocean to hillside and home
Over hills, by lochside and braes I would walk
As generations before trod among gorse and bracken,
Tasted the scent of heather and of foaming salty sea.
They worked the mines, tilled the soil,
Fishers sailed from the docks to farm the endless seas,
Herders of sheep and drovers of cattle that fed their folk,
Neither reivers nor brigands
But simple folk, simple trades, simple fare were their lot
Pledged to Family, Clan Church and Country.
Peat fires warmed the hearth, boiled the tea
Brought to the pit head to fathers and sons
Who laboured deep within the earth
To power the age of steam and industry,
Gathering when mine’s whistle sounded disaster
To comfort the stricken and bereaved.
Simple dignity and pride were all they sought
Held high with traditions steeped in ancient lore
Passed hand to hand, mouth to mouth like those before.
An unbroken river that ties this place,
Here and now, to that place there and then.
From triumph at Stirling Bridge to tragedy at Culloden
Of Wallace, Roy and the sad, sad Prince
Told and retold to children’s children’s children
Passing on that sense of pride and lasting grief
That haunt the great diaspora born of the clearances
And desire to live free of landlord and desperate poverty
Offering prayers to Seonaidh for a blessing on their crossing.
And so, deep in the dark when such things are possible,
Sailing from old Glasgow’s soot-clad port
Selkies rise from the sea to enchant
The unwary in gossamer nets of sweet promise
And will’o-the-whisps and faeries dance about the fyre
Like ancient Druids come to pay homage to ancient Gods
Voices raised as pipers stretch out their piobaireachd.
It stirs a thing in me to join them,
Calling out across the water,
“Come home. Come home”.
