And so, let’s pause a moment here, draw strength – and reclaim what is ours. Ron Butlin
It was a fine affair: a red carpet, a string quartet, speeches from private and public bodies, a poem composed for the occasion, and fizzy wine to wash it all down. But, rather oddly, the official opening of St Andrew Square was closed to the public. I was in a hurry or I would have stopped to take a photograph of the sign on the locked gates. It didn’t seem quite the right spirit to celebrate an otherwise generous and welcoming space. Ron Butlin’s poem, on the other hand, was perfect.
Perhaps it is churlish of me to mention the locked gates, I was among the privileged company ushered into the marquee specially erected for the occasion. But it seemed a strange contradiction to close the gates while inside the big tent speakers and guests proudly celebrated the opening of a new public space. Since Alex Salmond proudly announced that he walks up the Royal Mile from parliament to city centre (was that why he was 30 minutes late?), he was unlikely to be phased by meeting a few folk on the way to the red carpet.
Even so, it was good to hear so much enthusiasm for the garden and due credit given to the old Edinburgh City Centre Management Company who made it happen. They had to work hard to negotiate ‘the possibilities and prohibitions’ of the capital city as the Makar, Ron Butlin, so succintly puts it.
And credit is certainly due to Essential Edinburgh and their event organisers for including the Makar in this official opening ceremony, for giving the poet a place on the platform, and for publicly celebrating the fact that St Andrew Square is now Edinburgh’s poetry garden.
Here’s the last verse of Poetry in St Andrew Square which Ron first performed in draft form at the completely public opening of the poetry garden two weeks ago.
Ours is a city of possibilities and projibitions where we do our best to find the best way forward, and to seek out kindness where we can but only in these very public gardens, only in the green spaces of these very public gardens, can we feel the reassurance of the Earth beneath us.
And so, let’s pause a moment here, draw strength – and reclaim what is ours.
Let’s do just that: the gardens are open every day from 8 am till 6am.
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