in memoriam Gerry Loose

Ken Cockburn and I wrote this renga – a Japanese form of linked verse – to remember our dear friend, Gerry Loose, who died on Tuesday 30 April, 2024. We planted verses by Gerry in-between our own.

Gerry's work, as a poet and artist, was concerned with healing, justice, and the practice of radical kindness. He touched so many lives, as friend, mentor, encourager, and exemplar of the true good life, embodiment of the dharma gadelica.

Together with his partner Morven, Gerry made real the tradition of the Japanese hut poets, sharing, growing, mending, laughing, living hutopianism, and writing with profound respect for nature. He was also a gardener, devoted to wildness, and an innovator, devoted to tradition.

The paper wish was tied the day after he died, in Starbank Park, Newhaven.

renga: in memoriam Gerry loose

 

a true relic of dharma gadelica–

the poet’s woolly bunnet

snagged with moss

 

   a preference
   for proximity

 

on the shelf

between Heraclitus /

Tom Leonard

 

   it is only now 

   it is always now

 

finding

the frequency of a long

disused path

 

   the deer nibbling

   while you’re gone

 

eked out

almost nothing left

mushroom moon

 

   the hound sniffsnuffles

   in the heart of the wood

 

the unfinished star-

gazing seat

by the unfinished hut

 

   seeing stars

   seeing ourselves

 

patiently
read the map
dewfall

   Department of Mountains & Waters:

   One Day Dreaming Permit

 

a rule I will

still hold to :

‘what would Gerry do?’

 

   to act is / to dream

   what is said / by the invisible

 

who better to trace

the breath of horse

in the cypher unknown

 

   daughter gone into the world
   sometimes I leave her room light on

 

after a long winter
Spring of Poetry

Open Atelier

 

   it comes back to me

   your sleeping alone again

 

the first time in years

the sound of rain

on the felt roof

 

   and your noisy neighbours 

   the laughing yaffles

 

the whole day

the whole way

brighter

 

   you with Morven and her

   with her puckish grin

happens most years –

end-of-tour 

stage-set delivery

 

   a paper wish tied

   in apple blossom

 

 

Notes

Lines in italics from GL, in order of appearance: ‘wren’ (Twelve Airs); lines adapted from ‘Cages’ (the unfinished hut, p. 36); permit issued by the poet in residence (GL), Glasgow’s Botanic gardens, from Ten Seasons; lines from poem LXX, faultlines (2015); lines from ‘Pool’ and ‘Mains of Afforsk’, two of GL’s translations of Ogham inscriptions, published by Jerome Rothenberg on his blog ‘Poems and Poetics’; couplet from 'The Deer Path to My Door' in Printed on Water (2007); adapted from a Facebook post by GL, 15/4/24; haiku by GL, Atoms of Delight; the felt roof of the hut at Carbeth; from 'Spirit' The Unfinished Hut.

Photograph of Gerry Loose taking a pause to read on a walking library walk from Carbeth to Glasgow, for Sweeney's Bothy; photo by Luke Allan. Photograph of Gerry Loose, Alec Finlay and Ken Cockburn, The Hidden Gardens, Glasgow, 21 June 2003; photographer unknown.

 

remember together, Pitlochry High School

'remember together' workshop led by Kate McAllan 

 

Over the course of a day pupils from Pitlochry High School took part in a number of memory collecting workshops, inviting them to share their stories of the Covid pandemic.

 

Many of these children encountered the onset of the pandemic at a time of transition: preparing to go to high school and moving in to the first few years of their adolescence. The contributions reflect a spectrum of experiences and emotions. 

 

The pupils reflected on the meaning of the remember together memorial. What does it mean to remember something difficult or complex? And how can we make universal works of art which make room for every person’s story?  

 

Using a series of prompts involving nature, friends, food and drink they painted their I remembers. 

 

Their responses tell of moments involving friends, creativity and cake-baking. Also at times there are stories of repetition, unease and loneliness.

The Colour of Memories

 

Recording details in small envelopes, pupils described their most vivid memory of lockdown and assigned a colour to this moment. The colours reflect the myriad of emotions involved. 

 

The names of the colours read like individual poems. Yellow was the dominant colour and there were several shades of blue.

 

One pupil remembered filling a time capsule with her brother and feeling hope for the future. She called this moment ‘Deep, meaningful blue’. 

Colour Names

 

Ultramarine blue

 

Cobalt blue

 

Cadmium green

 

Canary yellow

 

Naples yellow

 

Vermillion

 

Crimson

 

Rose pink

 

Sea green

 

Lemon yellow

 

Sky blue

 

Lilac 

 

Olive green

 

Orange yellow

 

Deep meaningful blue

 

Black

The Colour of Memories 

 

 

Light Blue

 

I remember me and my brothers weren’t getting along 

but one day we started building dens in the forest

and from that day we were closer than ever

 

 

Sea Green

 

I remember going to my auntie’s house at the beach

when it was nice and warm; the house was the colour

of the sea

 

 

Cobalt Blue

 

I remember most the day I found out

my gran Agnes had passed away and

I never got to tell her I loved her 

 and say goodbye

 

 

Mustard yellow

 

I remember being in my room for months

and not leaving much

 

 

Lemon yellow

 

I remember listening to people sing

‘over the rainbow’

 

 

Canary yellow

 

I remember my family and I went out looking

for those painted rocks that people would leave out.

The weather was nice that day and we went to places

we wouldn’t normally go. 

 

 

Black

 

I remember being trapped within the confines

of my room

 

 

Deep, meaningful blue

 

I remember the day I filled my time capsule. 

I was with my brother in the hallway, and I was filling 

the jar with anything meaningful. It was the first 

moment I thought about the future. 

I remember

 

Alec is creating a remember together memorial to the ongoing Covid pandemic, for Highland Perthshire, Spring 2024. These workshop were held on Thursday 21st of March 2023

 

remember together (Highland Perthshire)

These ‘I remember’ were gathered for a ‘remember together’ Covid memorial that I’m creating in Highland Perthshire; one of five commissions in Perthshire.

They come from members of the community and, as with the I remember book published as part of Scotland’s Covid Memorial, they give a sense of the diverse ways in which Covid impacted on all our lives. 

A collective act of remembrance is never a uniform expression of feeling: our lives differ and the pandemic laid bare some of the causes of those differences. These memories are also a way of restating a difficult truth: the pandemic is not over.

If you’d like to contribute a memory then please do, wherever you live. You can send them to info@alecfinlay.com.

I will be posting more information about the design of the memorial and its proposed location in the Spring.

Thanks to Julia Harriman for her help with the project.