Norlan Lichts by Lesley Benzie, Sheena Blackhall and Sheila Templeton

A Review by Alistair Lawrie

Norlan Lichts
New Poems in Scots from the North East
Lesley Benzie, Sheena Blackhall and Sheila Templeton
Rymour Press (2022) £10.79

By its nature, indeed its very existence, this collection of poems (by Lesley Benzie, Sheena Blackhall and Sheila Templeton) sets out to be a significant moment for Doric and indeed Scots poetry. It succeeds. The name itself “Norlan Lichts” makes this aim clear, particularly appearing as it does a hundred years on from MacDiarmid’s kick starting the Scottish Renaissance, as Ian Spring notes in the short introduction. In this he clearly draws links with these three poets and those associated with the earlier movement (Jacobs, Symons and Angus) and some of the traditional concerns of Scottish verse. Even the collegiate nature of the arrangement of the poems seems to add to the feeling that there is an element of poetic manifesto about this collection. Perhaps predictably Sheena Blackhall states this commitment most pungently:

“Fin I wis wee, I sooked in Doric
Wi my reg’lar bottle o milk ...
My tongue didnae fork like a snake’s
Till I stertit the skweel”

but all three assiduously promote Doric by their skilful use of it in their work. The volume contains a rich selection of work by three poets all of whom write in their own highly individual versions of Doric. That diversity is at the heart of the collection. All three vigorously promote the spikk itsel but the variety in its use is intrinsic to the effect. Each poet has a very clear, distinctive voice of her own and, while the subject matter is often related, indeed, arranged to be so in the book’s four sections, the reader is regularly challenged by the tonal or stylistic shifts created by the constant movement from one poet to another. My first reaction to this was to be critical. I felt it should have been sensibly arranged into work by each of the three poets in the tradition enshrined in the old Penguin Modern Poets series. This way I felt you could become familiar with and therefore appreciate each for her own distinctive ways of seeing and saying. Certainly each poet has a clearly discernible voice which is in itself worth hearing and learning how to savour. Yet in the end I’ve come to prefer, to appreciate even, the constant jarring effect of shifting from one voice to another. It ensured that as a reader I was kept constantly on my mettle, having to think about what I was reading, having to negotiate with each voice afresh in each poem. More Importantly I started to realise that these constantly shifting versions of the tongue, viewpoints and voices were affirming the fact that Doric is as infinitely capable of variation, of subtlety, of light and shade as any other form of our shared language.

The voices are indeed very different. Of course there are common themes, identified by Spring in his introduction, the land and its seasons, elements of the poetic tradition, contemporary social and political issues, a shared familiarity with international culture (in itself typically Scots), an ability to explore equally successfully the daft or the tragic features of human life andof course their common commitment to the Doric.

All of these are there but personally I’ve come to enjoy the individual excellence of each poets’ distinctive voice. Lesley Benzie is spare, economic, a toonser voice, relentlessly blunt and colloquially everyday – all of these yet capable of considerable poignancy when appropriate. And her subjects are dealt with in a way that is often elliptically brief, sharp and uncompromising and powerfully political.

Sheila Templeton is often deeply lyrical and powerfukky expansive in expression. Her poetry is often very subtle in its effect, dealing with finely delineated relationships, the processes of change over time. The past and its connection to the present informs her work very powerfully and, perhaps as a result, her work is more likely to feature a mixture of current and older more traditional expression.

Sheena Blackhall is as usual defiant of category, able to shift successfully from the deeply traditional to experimentation in Erasure or Golden Shovel Poetry with apparently consummate ease. Her work can be serious, thoughtful and very funny often all at once. Her similes can be dazzling and her use of rhyme assured, both structurally or to epigrammatic effect.

In conclusion, the overall effect of this excellent anthology is to underline emphatically the fact that Doric is a perfectly suitable medium for a complete range, how it allows (to misquote Norman MacCaig) for “a breadth and assemblage” of poetic possibility. Tae misquote anither manifesto, iss buik echoes as nearhaun as mith be the real spikk o weemen. An gars us see foo rich an fruitful that spikk can be gin it’s eesed richt. An important buik, aye – a gran guide tae far oor spikk is ayenoo an tae far it mith ging in i future.