The Makar Challenge! This piece was written collaboratively on Facebook on April 5th 2020 in real time as members responded to the following instructions from our Makar Finola Scott:
- You can only submit one line so make it count, by
posting it in the comments. This must be original and your own work. - You should use recipe words – stir, fold etc
- But no actual foods should be used.
- Abstract concepts like friendship, kindness etc
are welcome - As are concrete things like budding tulips.
And here is the poem that resulted 59 comments later:
In a large bowl, add one cup of fresh cherry blossom to 500mls of friends’ laughter and stir well. Leave to marinade for the length of time
it takes to sing your favourite song.
Strain the mixture through a fine sieve to obtain the pink essence of friendship.
Flour a board with absent smiles, knead gently and allow time to rest. Cover with primrose petals, placing each with a goodwill wish.
The flour was stirred into the kindness of humanity; add a teaspoon of spicy wit, and a generous handful of wisdom. Bring in to the
mix, a cup of empathy, and let the ingredients fix. Blend in a rainbow of hope. Season well; a pinch of experience, a gentle of time, joy to
taste. Whip up some happiness. As you spin round the block three times, wave to your neighbours two metres apart. Season to your
own taste as everyone’s dish is their own. The joy of life’s recipe is there is no set ingredients.
Gently fold in friends’ laughter as this will
ensure a lightness to your day. Add expectation little by little, or the mixture will curdle. Knead gently, set aside to prove
Say thanks to the ones making the cake.
Sprinkle with hope and Love and Joy.
Serve at once, or store for later; Joy lasts
eternal. Let the compassion rise for an hour bake and then serve first to self and then to others and consume joyfully. Then do it all
over again! Fold in full notes and phrases of dawn chorus and good dashes of springtime sun. Stir well and add as much hope as you
have to hand. Rub your techie ignorance into your need for connection, season well with native wit…and bake a delicious cake of new
video chat. Kneading birdsong into your day, add a pinch of hope, a sprinkle of goodness and essence of kind. This will truly be a
delightful treat for all to find. Spread far and wide, to bus drivers, posties, neighbours, and nurses, on doorsteps, window sills, homeless
shelters, empty park benches. Stirring up memories of how you looked in a Spring cotton dress, remember to share equally. Mix in some
essence of nature, cherry blossom and petals of spring flowers, ten drops each of Sense, Rhythm and Blues for balance…first whisking
to a froth.Allow the mixture to rest for a few moments…then add a few drops of essence of pure love .. stirring gently…. Enjoy.
Finally, spread it thick and far around the world, add cat purrs and baby laughs to sprinkle over everyone like fairy dust. Discard
seeds of hurt, soak sadness in strong, grateful spirit, cover with cloth of certain hope and leave overnight. Consume with a mindful relish
and plentiful gratitude. Allow the ingredients of generosity and love to penetrate your senses in order to share them bountifully.
Serve broken into a praline of bite-sized pieces,dusted with the sweet passing of time…
This is your recipe for joy.
The FWS pamphlet Horse Power, a celebration of James Watt on the 200th anniversary of his death, came to Heriot-Watt University on September 26th. HWU is partly named after the great engineering innovator, and three FWS members, two of them HWU members of staff, were invited to read from Horse Power to a large audience at the annual Stake-holders meeting.
