Things we learned from Edwin Morgan
Over the course of the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF) this year, I managed to get to a good run of poetry events, from Owen Sheers to Simon Armitage, from the presentation of the Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition, to the frankly epic Paul Muldoon.
The EIBF and its guest selectors went all out this year to bring us the best from the poetry world. It was a sad thing then, in the middle of such of an awesome run, to hear that Edwin Morgan, Scotland’s first Makar (or National Poet), passed away, the day after the presentation of the Edwin Morgan poetry prize.
Many beautiful obituaries have been written by friends and fellow poets. If you are interested in reading them, you can find a collection of them along with some of Morgan’s work, here.
In order to celebrate the life of such a well-loved poet, the EIBF organised ‘A Celebration of Edwin Morgan’ on Monday evening. The tickets were free, and it promised readings of Morgan’s work from some of Scotland’s best known poets. It sounded unmissable!
Going to the event was an odd experience. A whole mix of people showed up – from newcomers to Morgan’s work (like my mum) looking for an introduction, to people who had worked with him for decades. I have narrated the sequence of events (below) in the present tense, as this seemed the best way to get the atmosphere of the evening across.
A Celebration of Edwin Morgan
At the beginning of the event, a film clip of Morgan reading One Cigarette is shown and then the poets have their turn. Each poet that comes on stage has their own Edwin Morgan story – about work they did together, when they last spoke, the poem they liked best, and so the event comes together like a wonderful patchwork of Morgan’s life.
Robert Crawford cannot resist reading The Loch Ness Monster’s Song and Jackie Kay reads a response to the famous Strawberries. Everyone brings something new to the table and each speaker teaches me something new about poetry and about Edwin Morgan.
Things we Learned from Edwin Morgan
He was a playwright. Edwin Morgan wrote a dramatisation of The Play of Gilgamesh that was never produced on stage. The actor and director, Tam Dean Burn, is currently working on its first outing. Dean Burn’s daughter was born just a few hours after Edwin Morgan’s death, and is named Morgan. He reads The Drum.
The past, and the future, are important. Edwin Morgan wrote many poems about science fiction, time travel and prehistoric man. The First Men on Mercury, read by Douglas Dunn, is a beautiful (and very funny) example of a post-colonial text. Before reading it, Dunn talks a little about the language of the poem and its post-colonial tendencies, but he is quick to remind us that, ‘we shouldn’t think of poetry that way . . . just enjoy the damn stuff!’
Trio is read by Kathleen Jamie – Christmas poems do not have to be cheesy.
Robert Crawford does a very good Loch Ness Monster impression. He also reminds us that the Loch Ness Monster is the loneliest of all the beasties, and compares this to the loneliness that Morgan must have felt as a closeted gay man in the 1950s. This is something that has never occurred to me before, and knocks my socks off. In the same way as The First Men on Mercury is both deep and entertaining, so The Loch Ness Monster’s Song is both astoundingly silly and quietly sad.
Tommy Smith plays the saxophone very well and has an intriguing accent.
Liz Lochhead reads Cinquevalli, which she sees as Morgan’s circus-bound double life, and the lines ‘there is no deception in him. He is true’ ring deep.
In A View of Things, a couple of lines stand out. In no particular order:
What I love about poetry is its ion engine What I hate about hate is its eyes What I hate about gooseberries is their look, feel, smell and taste.
‘Love lies at the heart of Morgan’s poetry . . . and yet this universal feeling is ghosted by the self censorship he felt obliged to impose on his work’ someone says this. I am too busy listening to double check who.
The little images create a world in a poem. In From the Video Box 25, read by Don Paterson, Morgan describes jigsaw pieces as ‘thousands of little grey tortoises’. Edwin Morgan had a sweet tooth. Jackie says so, in her wonderful poem responding to Strawberries, which she also reads. Morgan was full of mischievousness, see Rules for Dwarf-Throwing, and Andrew Greig learned that gin and tonic is worth drinking from Edwin Morgan, on a six night poetry tour of Ireland many years ago. Apparently, Morgan also wrote a mean limerick.
He inspired so many.
Robert Crawford spoke at the Edwin Morgan poetry prize-giving, and said that few contemporary poets have escaped ‘having an Eddie Morgan-ish line here or there in almost every poem’. From the lineup before us, we can see how true this is. In fact, our final reader James Robertson has used an Edwin Morgan line, ‘and the land lay still’ as the title of his forthcoming novel.
After Roberston finishes, there is another short film, with Edwin Morgan reading once again. In this final piece, he falters several times and although we all know it’s a film we are watching, it seems as if he knows he is on his way now. The film draws to a close and Nick Barley dedicates this year’s festival to Edwin Morgan. It feels like a fitting goodbye.
