I had no idea what to expect when I looked at the submissions – all with pseudonyms so identities were concealed. I was delighted by the diversity of petitioners. A great deal of wit was on display, but many heartfelt and poignant pieces too. I greatly enjoyed reading them, and I hope you do too. Thanks to all who sent submissions. Don’t forget if you are a FWS member you have a right of reply – see below.

The twenty-fifth up is Ruth Aylett, who gives us a political poem with a difference – the poet’s social conscience, as she says, takes on a life of its own and petitions her to take heed. We all have such a voice, Ruth suggests. Do we listen to it?

Ruth says of herself ‘Ruth Aylett lives and works in Edinburgh. Widely published in magazines and anthologies, her first single-author pamphlet Pretty in Pink, about the lives of women, has just been published by 4Word – see https://dura-dundee.org.uk/2021/02/14/pretty-in-pink/ for a recent review. It will launch on zoom on Marh 19th. Her next, Queen of Infinite Space, will be published by Maytree in November. For more see: www.macs.hw.ac.uk/~ruth/writing.html

and says of her poem (link below): ‘This piece was conceived as a different approach to a political poem, where a person’s social conscience takes on a life of its own. Don’t we all have such a voice inside us?’

https://federationofwritersscotland.files.wordpress.com/2021/03/your-own-petition.pdf

I’m delighted too to be able to bring you contributions from our current Makar Finola Scott and our current Scriever Charlie Gracie. These will remain accessible on the web-site until all the posts from contributors have been displayed and will of course appear also in the printed version of the anthology.

You can read Finola’s rousing call to all ‘Braw Lassies’, originally written for a Stellar Quines project, at https://federationofwritersscotland.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/braw-lassies.pdf

You can read Charlie’s letter to Mother Earth, a masterly deployment of Swiftian irony (think ‘A Modest Proposal’) at

https://federationofwritersscotland.files.wordpress.com/2020/10/to-mother-earth.pdf

Any comments on any of the pieces published should be sent direct to me at acclarke6@btopenworld.com Don’t forget if you are a Federation member not already accepted for the Arbroath anthology you can write a response to the poems posted. Email me at the above address for details.