Open Mic on 21st April

Here's a wee report from Dr Paul Shanks of the HighlandLIT event on 21 April.

HighlandLIT’s April event on Monday 21st was an open mic.  9 people read, one of them contributing twice.

:

Lilian Ross read two poems: one was about Spring and the welcoming of the new day; the other, written in her characteristic North-East Scots touched upon the historical persecution of witches.

Sam Steele  provided an effectively dramatic reading of a Robert Burns-inspired poem, The Great Pursuit, which had to it a fable-like fairy-tale feel.

Next, Cáit O'Neill McCullagh read two very powerful and haunting poems, one of which she said she had just composed that day.

She was followed by Caroline Robinson who contributed an effective and visceral short prose piece centring on a severed antler and an unpleasant male landowner.

Paul Shanks contributed a sound/ shape poem attempting to imitate the aural qualities of church bells in a small Hungarian village.

Paul Hart read an extract from a prose work that focuses on the aftermath of the second English Civil War in a dialogue between a father and son who are politically at odds with one another, and this was followed by another piece of prose, Iris Perrin’s story about a travel writer sent to the Scottish Highlands.

Next up, Colm Black read a powerful poem that juxtaposes a classical painting of Hector (from The Iliad) with a description of the Russians burying their dead.

Malcolm Timperley provided another characteristically eerie yet comic story about a man's anxiety regarding the idea of being cremated – a story with a twist in its tail.

Finally, Cáit read once more, this time a poem that focussed on Matt Damon and segues into an empathic exploration of illness.

It was a wonderful evening, much enjoyed by those who attended both in person and on-line.

(The microphone image by Nickolay Frolochkin is royalty-free from Pixabay,)