Written piece
HIGHLANDER
NICOLE DE hOOG
Australia
About this piece
Australia, in its' relatively short " history" is a land of migrants. With the exception of the Indigenous Aboriginal inhabitants, we all come from somewhere else.
My Father-in-law was a weaver from the Island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, Scotland.
I wrote this poem about him.
HIGHLANDER
Weave me your stories,
Old man.
As you wove the tweed.
Part of the mist,
the heather
The earth.
Weave me the sunshine,
Old man.
Into the glinting ocean.
The blue, gold, green,
The fishes,
The sands.
Weave me the sadness,
Old man
Out of the rain-swept moor,
The lonely grey rocks
The gulls
The smoke.
Weave me your life,
Old man.
And I will wear the cloth.
The warp and the weft
A part of myself .