Each month we will be featuring a guest writer and this month is Wayne Olson of Suffern, New York. He said, "This particular poem came about after a period of researching my family's roots. Long ago, my mother's family came to the US from Clydesdale. I have always enjoyed immersing myself in a historical period. I always seem to be thinking about something and always writing about ideas and impressions. Writing is my preferred method of expression and always has been. Its gone in several new directions over the years, which has surprised me sometimes. I am often surprised by the form and content that arises, asking myself as many writers must often do, ' Did that come out of me?'"

CHILDREN OF ALBA By Wayne Olson They came from the Highlands, the Lowlands and Lochs, the Children of Alba, these men of good stock. To the New World they sailed, from their Old World docks, These Children of Alba, these men of good stock. When forced off their land by, demise of the Clan, They would suffer a fate, that none would understand. The pain and resentment, that they felt went deep, When land taken from them, was given to sheep. The King left them less but, there had to be more, Than fodder for cannons, and pawns in his wars. The rack-renting landlords, the terms of the "Feu", New thoughts of a new life, were frequent and grew. They struggled and strived in, The Land with a curse, Then had the idea that, the New can't be worse! They waved a good-bye to, the land of their birth, And sailed from their harbors, and out of the firths. They brought all they needed, to make a new start- A faith in their future, and God in their hearts. But of all they would bring, of fine things the best, Was borne not in baggage, but in the man's chest. With no way of knowing, with no way to see, They were brought here to start, a democracy. Borne across the seas by, good ships in God's hands, To raise up a New Breed, sowed in a New Land. Our God in His wisdom, decides now and then, To take out a people, to do it again. Abraham and Moses, and a man named Lot, They too were immigrants, just like the Great Scots. So if God had a need, to build a New Land; If He chose a people, and promised a plan, Would He not again go, to the Land of the Scots, The Children of Alba, these men of good stock?

You can reached the author wayne222@earthlink.net