Clearance.
…
I see my people’s names
in all the places I search
but I do not see them.
…
I read my people’s names
on the dry page of the folded map
but the land before me is empty.
I watch the landscape
identifying the marks
that my people have named
but the sound of their voices
is no longer heard.
There is a quietness
no echoing of names called
no trail of our footprints
only the trail of names
in a land that calls itself
by a strangers name.
A land echoing in its emptiness.
…
The mountains are still with us
but we are nowhere seen.
…
At Kinlochmoidart 1993.
…
“And we will present our eyes to the world.
Is it pretentions to believe that we are equal?
Is it asking too much that we want to live?
(From Deliverance: Alan Stivell)
Clearances from “Uncertain Times” Collection of poetry & photographs Rob Cullen published 2017.
Thinking of the people of Gaza & all dispossesed people.
And no person of a Celtic background should support a clearance of people from their lands.
