Held fast
ta celebrate fifty year o Magnie an Eunice
In da bleak mid winter
a union.
And at the going down of the sun
a beginneen.
Yay, though I am fearfully
an winderfully med
I do
and
ton od I
choost whit I choose
and
ton esoohc I tihw
an I choose mairryin
pid feirb ad i
atween Jül an Ne’erde;
I choose sharin
whittivir bed haes med hit’s wye
fur wis ta lie in
.sdeh yraew riw tser na
I choose no tae waandir
fae dy side;
I choose no ta pit
a sowl afore de.
I choose bein wi de ay
eespeeshilly whan wir iddirwise
poseeshinned on da globe.
I choose seein aa dy flaas
.med ruf ed nivol na
I choose believin at we can baith
.riddina nee sa gnarw sa eb
I choose believin at dat gies wis
ycnerruc ron latipac ridden
ower een aniddir
but gies wis
een aniddir
ithoot which aa wi hae
means nawtheen.
But hits no whit we choose at makks wis
.siw sesoohc tihw s’tih
A sang
shineth in the darkness, and the darkness
comprehendeth it not.
ssijk A
to rest, remain and abide with you,
Amen.
Christie Williamson is from Yell in Shetland and has lived in Glasgow for most of the 21st century. His poems have been appearing since 2003 in places like the New Shetlander, Poetry Scotland, New Writing Scotland and Gutter. His debut pamphlet, Arc o Möns (2009) from Hansel Co-operative Press was a Spanish/Shetlandic bilingual edition of Federico Garcia Lorca poems and joint winner of the Calum MacDonald Memorial Award. Oo an Feddirs appeared from Luath in 2015. He is Scots poetry editor of Tapsalteerie Press and part of the current team at Tell it Slant Books.