Rhyme with a reason as poets line up to lift income for Haiti upheaval victims

THE thickk cream of the countrys poets took to the theatre last night in a singular well review choice to lift income for victims of the Haiti earthquake. Britains Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy led the one-off entertainment of nineteen award-winning Scottish and UK poets in Edinburghs Queens Hall.More than 800 poetry-lovers flocked to the sell-out eventuality to listen to the likes of Alasdair Gray, Douglas Dunn, LiADVERTISEMENTz Lochhead, Ron Butlin, Gillian Clarke and Duffy review their work.The dusk was a culmination to the Edinburgh Unesco City of Literature "Carry A Poem" campaign, that highlights the energy of communication in peoples lives.All income lifted will go to Mercy Corps, for the Haiti Earthquake Emergency Appeal.The event, that was the brainchild of Duffy and Don Paterson, proposed on a low-pitched note, with the normal Scottish strain The Dark Island.The dusk was compered by Catherine Lockerbie, the former executive of the Edinburgh International Book Festival, who pronounced it had been "probably the greatest ever communication celebration of the mass in Scotland".Setting the fundraising tone, she added: "Words have a difference; income creates a difference."Culture apportion Fiona Hyslop praised Scotland for the donations to the Haiti mess account so far.Pulling together the threads of communication and healthy disasters, Duffy said: "For me, communication is the song of being human."Tonight, the poets of Scotland and a Celtic cousin or dual from Wales and Newcastle, will away and collectively complete the song of being human."The initial celebration of the mass was since by Butlin, the Scottish capitals Makar, of his poem The Magicians of Edinburgh.A special acquire was afterwards since to National Poet of Wales, Gillian Clarke, who done the dusk with mins to gangling after being stranded on a behind sight for ten hours.Scottish bard Gray treated with colour the assembly to a short story of Britain, followed by a some-more staid work, and sat down to rapturous applause.Poet and playwright Lochhead lifted a charge after delivering a poem formed on her practice of operative in theatres, whilst Aonghas MacNeacail review a Gaelic poem about the childrens impression Rupert the Bear.Robert Crawford, a producer and highbrow of complicated Scottish novel at St Andrews University, explored the attribute in between Barack Obama and Osama Bin Laden, final they were "twinned by inevitable rhyme".Other highlights enclosed Jackie Kay, who annoyed howls of delight after treating guest to The Ma Broon Monologues. The dusk resolved with Dunn, whose regretful communication was projected on to the stone underneath Edinburgh Castle for Valentines Day last month. The difference "Look to the living, love them, and hold on" – from his poem Disenchantments – appeared on the north face of Castle Rock. Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave his full await in a minute to the event, describing Duffy as a "visionary humanitarian" who "has summoned together an extraordinary form of bent on one day in the use of one hope, a improved destiny for the people of Haiti".John Cunningham, executive of fundraising for Mercy Corps, said: "Its been a terrifically inexhaustible reply from the people of Edinburgh and the Poets for Haiti eventuality has valid quite successful in raising poignant amounts of income for survivors of this disaster."