Caithness writer George Gunn's new collection of poems are ' like distant stars in the past'
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THE poems penned by Caithness writer, George Gunn, in his new collection Chronicles of the First Light are "like distant stars in the past."
The book, which is published by The Drunk Muse Press, is launched today (Saturday, July 24) at the Wee Gatherin' poetry festival in Stonehaven.
The title of the collection refers to the moment when the first light in the universe is thought to have appeared, between 240,000 and 300,000 years after the Big Bang, and the universe went from being opaque to transparent.
"The further you look out into the universe the the further back in time you go. Many of the poems in this collection are autobiographical and are about growing up and are like distant stars in the past. It is like trying to place my life in the universe," he said.
Gunn, who grew up in Dunnet and lives in Thurso with his wife Christine, stressed the work is rooted in Caithness and is about its people and places but the themes are universal.
"Chronicles of the First Light is really a distillation of life – not just mine, but the life of everything, everyone all around me, and the temperature if you like of the times we’re all living through – here in Caithness and across the world. Just because we live in the north of mainland Scotland doesn’t mean we’re remote from the centre of things: we are the centre of things.
"And of course I’m getting older, so Chronicles is also a reflective book. I have more of life to look back on. In my experience ageing doesn’t mean you change so much as you grow into yourself. Of course, I have literally moved into different time and space since my early writing days, but substantially I find I am just going deeper into my imaginative and linguistic experience.
"Looking back at this book as it goes into publication, I see there are a few rants, but there’s also – people may be surprised to hear this from me – a lot of love poetry. The land, people, the politics of how power works (or doesn’t) – it’s all in Chronicles. And the book takes us right up to covid time – one of the poems is called Lockdown."
Gunn, a former artistic director of the Grey Coast Theatre Company, adds: "Ideas come the whole time. People tell me things, maybe about how there used to be a burial ground and chapel at Castlehill, and that triggers a poem like Plague Ghosts of Atomic City, which in turn morphs into a much bigger project – that idea inspired a novel I’m just finishing, called The Vinegar Wind.
"My natural form is poetry. Everything I write takes its energy and its shape from that. I’m a poet first and foremost. People are scared of poetry, but I like to think I’ve spent my life talking to people – local people here in Caithness – about how poetry is as natural a way to express yourself as shouting out at a football match."
The poems have been written over the last five years and "get rounded up like coos in a park," he said.
It is Gunn's fifth book of poetry but his first collaboration with Drunk Muse Press which is based in Stonehaven. It also produces the Poets Republic magazine.
Chronicles of the First Light can be obtained through the Drunk Muse Press/ Poets Republic website and costs £10.
Gunn is currently working on a project with Lyth Arts Centre called Words on the Wind which explores what it means to live in Caithness.
The result will be a 30-minute film due to be launched at the centre in the autumn.
