From Dornoch we moved further north
\nnot as north as where she was born
\nbut north enough to understand;
\nto understand her returning<\/p>\n
She sat there beneath the sculpture
\nOf \u2018The Emigrants\u2019 at Helmsdale,
\nMoved by the woman looking back
\nTo the strath that was once her home.<\/p>\n
For she too had to leave here
\nTo work in service or in shops;
\nShe too, with some eighty years now,
\nLived in the south and not the north<\/p>\n
And these years have moved her to tears
\nAnd this woman brought them all back,
\nYet she sits with son and daughter
\nWho marvel at her dignity.<\/p>\n
Two highland ladies, one in bronze,
\nAnd the other in flesh that pains,
\nBestow upon a changing world
\nUnchanging values that redeem.<\/p>\n
This is taken from Jim’s latest book of poetry, Being Beneath the Moon<\/cite>. Available for \u00a32.50 including. postage & packaging from Magdalene Press, 2, Carlton Street, Edinburgh, EH4 1NJ.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From Dornoch we moved further north not as north as where she was born but north enough to understand; to understand her returning She sat there beneath the sculpture Of \u2018The Emigrants\u2019 at Helmsdale, Moved by the woman looking back To the strath that was once her home. For she too had to leave here…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,290],"tags":[249],"class_list":["post-1428","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-emancipation-liberation","category-issue-17","tag-author-jim-aitken"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"views":6113,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1428"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1430,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1428\/revisions\/1430"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}