Each month we will be featuring a guest writer and this month's contribution is from Mary Maxwell. Mary is a multimedia artist residing in Ottawa,Canada. She had the great privilege of visiting the Hebrides in 1996. The trip to Harris and Lewis inspired a large installation, The Harris Shroud, that Mary completed and exhibited in eastern Canada in 1997. One of the components of the installation is the poem below.

SUMMER

In the Land of the Happy People
waulking song
to the rhythm of the wool beat
he'mandu
hi ri oro
ho ro'hi o
an island alive and strong
subtly beautiful
people and landscape interwoven

FALL

Looking out to sea
150 years
suiting up ivy league gentlemen
Mrs. Campbell
Mrs. MacDonald
Mr. MacLeod
clack clack clack
by hand
seven million yards

WINTER

Trouble in looming large
small width
cannot make a modern coat
nine hundred
four hundred
two hundred
weavers ranks keep dropping
a million yards
hanging by a thread

SPRING

Mr. Derick Murray
businessman
monopolizing the fabric of life
larger looms
wider cloth
softer threads
"those were the days" they'll say
progress is profit
let bygones be bygones

You can find more articles in the archive under Guest Writer's Corner