Welcome to The Scotsman Sessions
With performing arts activity curtailed for the foreseeable future, we are commissioning a series of short video performances from artists all around the country and releasing them on scotsman. com, with introductions by our critics.
Highlights so far include:
KT Tunstall performing her new song, Anything At All, from her home in Topanga Canyon, Los Angeles
Scotland’s Makar Jackie Kay reading two lockdown poems, Still and Mask
Tam Dean Burn tackling the subject of Scotland’s salmon farming industry in an excerpt from his show Aquaculture Flagshipwreck
Scottish Chamber Orchestra cellist Su-a Lee playing Dvořák’s Songs My Mother Taught Me in a forest near Grantown-on-spey
To watch, visit www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture
With St David’s Day approaching on 1 March, it’s time for a little Welsh poetry, provided in this instance by WH Davies. Born in Newport in 1871, Davies spent much of his life living outside Wales, dropping out of the mainstream to live as a tramp or hobo. He travelled around Britain and North America, later turning his exploits into memoirs. Despite turning his back on society, Davies was to become an extremely popular poet in his day and eventually to meet many of the leading writers and figures of his era. “Leisure” is one of his most enduring poems.
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare?no time to stand beneath the boughs And stare as long as sheep or cows: No time to see, when woods we pass, Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass: No time to see, in broad daylight, Streams full of stars, like skies at night: No time to turn at Beauty’s glance, And watch her feet, how they can dance: No time to wait till her mouth can Enrich that smile her eyes began? A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
You can reserve a copy of Selected Poems by WH Davies at the Scottish Poetry Library, 5 Crichton’s Close, Edinburgh EH8 8DT, which is operating a click and collect service, reception@spl.org.uk, www.scottishpoetrylibrary.org.uk.