{"id":23094,"date":"2023-02-21T17:04:02","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T17:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/?p=23094"},"modified":"2023-02-21T17:20:28","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T17:20:28","slug":"declarations-of-love-review-by-mary-mcgregor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/republicancommunist.org\/blog\/2023\/02\/21\/declarations-of-love-review-by-mary-mcgregor\/","title":{"rendered":"Declarations of Love: review by Mary McGregor"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mary McGregor reviews Declarations of Love<\/em>, poems of Jim Aitken, with drawings by \u00a0Martin Gollan. Thos book is published by Culture Matters<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

DECLARATIONS OF LOVE<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Jim Aitken is truly a people\u2019s poet. No allusions so obscure that you need volumes of classical texts to decipher. No pretensions of language so convoluted that you need a degree in linguistics to understand. No sneering sense of superiority that acts as a barrier to understanding. This collection of poetry is open and accessible, however it demands critical thought and most importantly, the capacity for love.<\/p>\n

Jim\u2019s ability to express what it means to be human and what it means to live under twenty first century capitalism is astounding. He makes us fulminate with anger at the inhumanity of a system so corrupt that it treats people as disposable commodities. At the same time however, he shows such tenderness that we believe that another way of being is possible.<\/p>\n

His class analysis is excoriating and his determined struggle unwavering. At its core this is a collection about human relationships; intimately with friends and lovers, collectively in the class struggle and globally with geo-politics and nature<\/p>\n

Jim says goodbye to a number of friends in this collection and seems to be acutely conscious of the autumn of our lives. \u00a0Yet each life is remembered as well lived because they were loved. In Those Three Words<\/em>, he captures the pain of grief; the price of love,<\/p>\n

\u201cThey brought a life of partnership<\/p>\n

\u00a0 comradeship, mutual values.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 They journeyed through life together<\/p>\n

\u00a0 until one of them had to leave\u201d<\/p>\n

The final act of love being to, \u201c\u2026honour him with tears\u201d<\/p>\n

In Twa Stars<\/em> beautifully written in Scots, he links our existence and deaths to nature and the cosmos. It does not feel sentimental or mawkish but rather is unarguable and fitting,<\/p>\n

\u201cAn they wur baith callin yer name<\/p>\n

\u00a0as the cauld grew caulder aw the time.<\/p>\n

\u00a0An they wur waitin fur ye in their glitter<\/p>\n

\u00a0tae join them shinin doon here.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Neil<\/em>, Blossoms<\/em>, A Lancashire Lad in Scotland<\/em> and other poems in the collection are goodbyes; heartfelt and real. They never rail against the inevitability of death. There is a quiet acceptance of the laws of nature. He does however rail against premature death caused by injustice and greed.<\/p>\n

A Candle for Stephen<\/em> is about the death of a Big Issue<\/em> Seller he knew. In it, Jim says goodbye to his friend and castigates the system which let him and so many others down,<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I will miss you, most certainly miss you<\/p>\n

\u00a0as the candle begins to burn and flicker<\/p>\n

\u00a0and as the burning injustice<\/p>\n

\u00a0of homelessness continues to inflame me.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fire infuses and ignites in other poems in the collection too.<\/p>\n

There is deep anger also burning in Drunkard<\/em> and Homeless Man, Edinburgh<\/em>. The destructive alienation of capitalism is personified in both. The Drunkard is, \u201clike a smashed egg\u201d. All the hope and potential lost. He is described without sentimentality as he has become dehumanised, \u201cLike a dog sniffing scent\u201d. Of course, Jim Aitken, going to his aid, judges not the man, but the brutality of a world that leads to a life of such despair,<\/p>\n

\u201chow much does it take<\/p>\n

to have this system afflict you so?\u201d<\/p>\n

The effects of this system, \u201cof an elite\u2019s rapacious greed\u201d is further developed in Homeless Man, Edinburgh<\/em>. Here Jim contrasts the political rhetoric of our politicians with the man\u2019s alienated reality. \u00a0Imagining the reply if he asked the man whether he felt more optimistic since Britain left the EU, he writes,<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel sure he would have told me\u2026\u2026..<\/p>\n

\u00a0to rather quietly go and fuck myself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reply is a contemptuous rejection of those in power who fail to see the most marginalised in the UK today.<\/p>\n

As an internationalist, Jim\u2019s concerns are not limited by national borders. I was particularly moved by Voices of the Dispossessed<\/em> and Diptych of Drones<\/em>. Having recently returned from Palestine these poems spoke to me profoundly. \u201cResist to Exist\u201d is defiantly painted across walls in the West Bank. These voices may be dispossessed of their land and their political and human rights but they retain their dignity and humanity through their continued resistance,<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how we live. This is how it is.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 This is how we survive and resist<\/p>\n

\u00a0 their inhumanity. \u201c<\/p>\n

The chilling horror in Diptych of Drones<\/em> reveals the callous, clinical nature of drone attacks. In 1. Convenience Killing<\/em>, we are reminded of Doctor Strangelove\u2019s hysterical madness, oblivious of the consequences,<\/p>\n

\u201cThey sit somewhere in Nevada,<\/p>\n

\u00a0 yeehadists killing jihadists,<\/p>\n

\u00a0 the new dialectic of rage<\/p>\n

\u00a0 that fails to think of consequence.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2. New Medal<\/em> the consequences are explicit,<\/p>\n

\u201cBut there are no medals for the funeral parties,<\/p>\n

\u00a0none for the burnt children \u2013 all are collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim\u2019s politics are never hidden and neither is his determination to remain part of a global resistance against war and capitalism and environmental destruction.<\/p>\n

In The C Word<\/em> and Century of a Name<\/em>, communism is a love that dare not speak its name. He does not downplay the horrors committed by \u201cthe sterile interpretation\u201d of communism but suggests the need for political solutions that are truly communal,<\/p>\n

\u201cNow it needs not only to interpret today\u2019s meltdown<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0but offer, with others, the solution implied by the name\u201d<\/p>\n

His nature poems embody the potential for growth and beauty and renewed life. They are inherently optimistic that another way is possible.<\/p>\n

His republicanism is conveyed with humour in If Nicholas Witchel spoke Scots<\/em>. He not only lays bare the dysfunctionality of the royal family but also exposes the myths perpetuated by the media of how benign and caring our royal \u2018betters\u2019 are.<\/p>\n

He pulls no punches when he writes about global hypocrisy. Now\u00a0 Ukraine<\/em> is in fact Jim Aitken\u2019s declaration of love. A love that has given him strength and purpose throughout his life,<\/p>\n

\u201cI started marching during the Vietnam War\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the decades of struggle that passion for peace and justice has not been diminished in him,<\/p>\n

\u201cI will march again for the end of war and for peace.<\/p>\n

\u00a0And for the humanity that binds us all, regardless<\/p>\n

\u00a0of our nation, our race or colour, our gender or faith,<\/p>\n

\u00a0for all people over all the earth to wage peace instead.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim Aitken is a poet \u201cfor all people over all the earth\u201d. This collection touches our hearts and, as always with Jim\u2019s work, is a call to action.<\/p>\n

The ability to express love in the face of the horrors we face is, in itself a revolutionary act and this is revolutionary poetry at its best.<\/span><\/p>\n

17.2.23<\/strong><\/p>\n

______________<\/p>\n

also see:-<\/p>\n

Mary MacGregor reviews<\/strong> Ghosts of the Early Morning<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

Mary MacGregor reviews ‘Ghosts of the Early Morning Shift’<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n