I'm delighted to see that both Creative Scotland funded projects that I've been involved with over the past few years have been shortlisted in the New Music Scotland Awards. I wrote words for 'Modern Chants' and for 'No Trees to Whisper'. I'm thrilled to see recognition for these beautiful works... 'No Trees to Whisper' was co-ordinated by Turning the Elements, Joanna Nicholson and Frances Cooper; and 'Modern Chants' was co-ordinated by Ruta Vitkauskaite, involving Joanna Nicholson, Gemma McGregor, Katherine Wren, Emily Doolittle, Chis Adams and myself as poet/storyteller. Here's the link to New Music Scotland Awards.
Recent poems which have been published include the following, I'll provide links where possible:
'Saif Vs Gude Lord’ commissioned by Andy Jackson and Bill Herbert for an anthology based on the Gude and Godlie Balladis of the Wedderburn brothers of Dundee (online). Read my poem here . I have a long abiding interest in/obsession with the Hebrew psalms, so this project was 'right up my street'. During lockdown, I studied the Hebrew and wrote on a psalm a day, by Psalm 40, I had gone quietly crazy. Hey ho.
‘Castle Huntly,’ ‘Tay Reed Beds’, ‘Issobell Haldane, tried at Perth 1623’ and ‘Meconopsis Alley at Branklyn Gardens’, Perthshire 101 anthology edited by Andy Jackson. I love my home in Longforgan (Castle Huntly is in my skyline) and really enjoyed selecting and researching themes for this anthology. I have pursued some of the themes further, particularly the horrific burning of women as witches in the seventeenth century. After I wrote the Meconopsis poem, a stray Meconopsis flowered in my garden. I didn't plant it and I'd never grown them before. A neighbour had given me cuttings of other things, so there must have been some stray roots in the soil. Thank you Meconopsis! Details of the anthology here, published by Tippermiur Books.
‘The Cailleach of Wool’ with Beth McFarland’ In Northwords Now, Issue 43, Summer 2022. Read it here.
I have recently been writing with my identical twin, Beth. We will publish our work as the McFarland Twins and I'll set up a separate website. Watch that space! I'll add a taster or two here at some point though. The work that we do is fun: she is very grounded in the earth and in tune with animals, I'm interested in spiritual planes...wow when we get together! (add a dash of hypnosis). We are a shared brain for sure.
‘Zephyr’, 2016. Fairmont Hotel St Andrews. This poem was commissioned by the Fairmont Hotel to align with their light installation by the artist George Singer. Here is the poem in question, if you go to the Fairmont Hotel, you'll see the installation, a chandelier, based on the flight pattern of a flock.
ZEPHYR
I
I love that there is no such thing as fault.
Imagine! You are a disc that’s shaped
as light folded to reflect the light.
Cherry-pick which one.
It is a fine accolade that you
do not collect dust.
Thought: all of your life so far
has brought you here, bedraggled;
every moment, now, you’re realigned.
Choose which photon-moon you’ll be.
Now tell me that the others are not
also you.
I, even I, will sing
a shoal of light, a wind.
II
There is an algorithm for a flock.
Imagine! Every solitary agent
programmed to reflect these rules –
alignment, cohesion, separation.
It was instinctive when they
hit the pause,
cherry-picked this scene to fix
within another universe – each element –
a disc of stainless steel, crimped on wire
weighed down with lead coated in paint –
fruits of this project, dipped in cream –
two tonnes of beauty’s force
aligns coheres and separates
this single moment us.
Dawn Wood, 2018, from As Mind Imagines World, Templar Poetry.
You can see the installation on George's website here
'Saif Vs Gude Lord’ commissioned by Andy Jackson and Bill Herbert for an anthology based on the Gude and Godlie Balladis of the Wedderburn brothers of Dundee (online). Read my poem here . I have a long abiding interest in/obsession with the Hebrew psalms, so this project was 'right up my street'. During lockdown, I studied the Hebrew and wrote on a psalm a day, by Psalm 40, I had gone quietly crazy. Hey ho.
‘Castle Huntly,’ ‘Tay Reed Beds’, ‘Issobell Haldane, tried at Perth 1623’ and ‘Meconopsis Alley at Branklyn Gardens’, Perthshire 101 anthology edited by Andy Jackson. I love my home in Longforgan (Castle Huntly is in my skyline) and really enjoyed selecting and researching themes for this anthology. I have pursued some of the themes further, particularly the horrific burning of women as witches in the seventeenth century. After I wrote the Meconopsis poem, a stray Meconopsis flowered in my garden. I didn't plant it and I'd never grown them before. A neighbour had given me cuttings of other things, so there must have been some stray roots in the soil. Thank you Meconopsis! Details of the anthology here, published by Tippermiur Books.
‘The Cailleach of Wool’ with Beth McFarland’ In Northwords Now, Issue 43, Summer 2022. Read it here.
I have recently been writing with my identical twin, Beth. We will publish our work as the McFarland Twins and I'll set up a separate website. Watch that space! I'll add a taster or two here at some point though. The work that we do is fun: she is very grounded in the earth and in tune with animals, I'm interested in spiritual planes...wow when we get together! (add a dash of hypnosis). We are a shared brain for sure.
‘Zephyr’, 2016. Fairmont Hotel St Andrews. This poem was commissioned by the Fairmont Hotel to align with their light installation by the artist George Singer. Here is the poem in question, if you go to the Fairmont Hotel, you'll see the installation, a chandelier, based on the flight pattern of a flock.
ZEPHYR
I
I love that there is no such thing as fault.
Imagine! You are a disc that’s shaped
as light folded to reflect the light.
Cherry-pick which one.
It is a fine accolade that you
do not collect dust.
Thought: all of your life so far
has brought you here, bedraggled;
every moment, now, you’re realigned.
Choose which photon-moon you’ll be.
Now tell me that the others are not
also you.
I, even I, will sing
a shoal of light, a wind.
II
There is an algorithm for a flock.
Imagine! Every solitary agent
programmed to reflect these rules –
alignment, cohesion, separation.
It was instinctive when they
hit the pause,
cherry-picked this scene to fix
within another universe – each element –
a disc of stainless steel, crimped on wire
weighed down with lead coated in paint –
fruits of this project, dipped in cream –
two tonnes of beauty’s force
aligns coheres and separates
this single moment us.
Dawn Wood, 2018, from As Mind Imagines World, Templar Poetry.
You can see the installation on George's website here