In commemoration of Scottish poet Robert Burns and in celebration of Burns Night (January 25th), The Globe Inn in Dumfries, said to be Burns favourite pub, held their annual Burns Window Project last month.
To take part in the project, Burns fans and poets were asked to write their entry on white paper with a black marker, scan their poem and email it in, or post it to The Globe Inn. The poems were then transferred onto cellophane and placed in the window panes of the pub – some visible from inside, some visible from outside – for punters to read during the Burns festival.
Sadly, some of the submissions had faded a little bit by the time I went to see them, but I did manage to get a copy of this picture of my entry before the condensation melted it away. Here is my poem, ‘Glaze’:
Glaze
Could I float into the pane? Would I melt
into the glass? Would it bubble, blubber
and break; crumble into fine ash,
or speckles of sucrose sand in my palms?
Or stay crystal, tangible, and tap-tap-tapable?
Painted with kaleidoscopic hues in the day,
filled with filigree shadow ghosts by dark –
it is liquid, gas, and solid in one.
I see your reversed image, my distorted
reflection at one, but split, sliced apart.
Two delicate wisps of marble caught, frozen,
between the beaded glaze.
Mirror, water, looking glass? I can hardly tell,
never mind bear to meet its gaze.
I loved the idea of the Window Project because I think melding the worlds of literature and physical art is a really interesting concept, so having poems in windows – as if they had been physically scribbled onto the pane – is something I immediately liked the sound of. If you know of any other projects similar to this that mixes contemporary literature/poetry with art, let me know in the comment section below.
The poems will be on display at The Globe Inn until February 20th.
What do you think of the Burns Window Project, and ‘Glaze’? Let me know in the comment section below!
sophie. 