100 Island Poems - Poetry Tour

Introduction by James Knox Whittet

W.B. Yeats said of the Irish dramatist, John Millington Synge who lived
for years on the Aran Islands:

He was a drifting man full of hidden passions who loved wild islands, because there, set out in the clear light of day, he saw what lay hidden in himself.

In this anthology, I have brought together poems, by famous and by lesser-known poets, which embody a piercing clarity of vision under the luminous skies of our beautiful islands. In reading and hearing at least some of these poems, I hope that readers and listeners will discover something of what lies hidden in themselves.

It seems to me, as someone who grew up in Islay, that our islands are too often regarded as peripheral to the ‘real’ world and yet each small island is a microcosm of that ‘real’ world and a place where living and dying are brought into sharper focus. An island is not a place of escape but, at best, a place where one can enter more deeply into oneself. Perhaps it is this aspect of island being which has drawn so many monks, hermits, contemplatives, mystics and poets to the wind-lashed islands all around our coast for so many centuries.

The aim of this reading tour to six of our islands is to bring the voices of some of our finest poets to the ears of islanders who, for once, need not leave their island to hear them. Here the voices of poets will merge with the echoes of the islands they love.

James Knox Whittet