Scots poem of the month - April 2007

A Manifesto for MSPs Dinna be glaikit, dinna be ower smert, dinna craw croose, dinna be unco blate, dinna breenge in, dinna be ayewis late, dinna steek yer lugs, dinna steek yer hert. Dinna be sleekit, dinna be a sook, dinna creesh nae loof for future favour, dinna swick nor swither, hash nor haiver, dinna be soor o face, and dinna jouk. Open yer airms and minds tae folk in need, hain frae fylin and skaith the land and sea, tak tent o justice and the commonweal, ding doon hypocrisy, wanthrift and greed, heeze up the banner o humanity, seek oot the truth and tae the truth be leal. James Robertson Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

About the poet James Robertson was born in Kent in 1958 and has lived in Scotland since he was six. A poet, editor and novelist, he has published many books, including two collections of short stories and three novels, The Fanatic (2000), Joseph Knight (2003) and The Testament of Gideon Mack (2006). Joseph Knight was awarded both the Saltire Book of the Year and the Scottish Arts Council Book of the Year awards for 2003/04. The Testament of Gideon Mack was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize and selected for the 2007 Richard and Judy Book Club. He received a Scottish Arts Council Creative Scotland Award in 2006 for a proposed novel on Scottish political and social change from 1945 to 1999. He is the general editor of ItchyCoo, the Scots language imprint for schools and young people.  His poetry has appeared in many magazines, in a book-length collection, Sound-Shadow (B&W Publishing, 1995) and in various pamphlets.  In November 2004, James spent three days as the first writer-in-residence at the Scottish Parliament.  The above poem was taken from the collection of poems and essays resulting from his experience there, Voyage of Intent, which was published in 2005 (Scottish Book trust/Luath Press).  James runs the pamphlet imprint Ketillonia and lives in Newtyle, Angus.

Inspiration for the Poem James says: 'As part of the sequence of poems resulting from my Scottish Parliament residency, I wanted to say something directly to the MSPs, give them a set of principles as goals. I deliberately wrote this sonnet in a quite dense Scots, hoping this might make those who read it do so not superficially, but deeply, perhaps having to check a few words or phrases in the dictionary, and that way it might stick in their minds.  The first eight lines are typically Scottish negative instructions - 'Dinna dae this, dinna dae dae that' - but the last six lines are positives - 'Open yer airms and minds, ding doon hypocrisy and greed, seek oot the truth' etc. I suppose what I'm trying to say is, let's make a positive thing out of this new politics, this new parliament, this new Scotland. I'd love it if one or two of our MSPs actually had this poem stuck above their desk and reread it every so often.'

If you have enjoyed this poem, you can borrow a range of poetry from the Scottish Poetry Library, who also lend by post. Telephone 0131 557 2876 or email reception@spl.org.uk. For an online catalogue, poetry events listings and more featured poems, please visit the Scottish Poetry Library website.