Scottish poetry collection : Video playlist

BRYAN - For anyone who doesn’t know, tell us what a dua is.

NADINE - So a dua is a prayer that you would make in Islam. Or so, with my Yorkshire accent I would be… I would say it in a very Yorkshire way and my aunt would always correct me and correct my pronunciation, which I love. But it’s a prayer that you, you would make for somebody often, so if someone’s ill, you make dua for them. If someone… If you’re going for a job interview, you make dua for them. And for me, I think it’s a very special thing to know that there is somebody, so for me, my aunt in Zimbabwe, who was making prayers for you and sending their love out for you and wishing for you, and how actually, when we are separated by planes and time, that the magic of that can still travel and still find you.

BRYAN - Those duas are contrasting with the the harshness of the the bus bells and the sirens. What were you trying to achieve there?

NADINE - In the poem, it was bringing my world alive through the different senses. So we have sound, we have like taste, we have smell. We have all of these different things to capture the contrasts between the two different places and the pull between them. And I think, and hopefully teachers will like this, I think if you would like to write a poem about someone who is important to you, but you’re not sure how to get an in, maybe thinking, okay, I’m going to write about them through the senses. So I’m going to write about the sound of their laugh or the sound that I most associate with them. I’m going to write about their hands or their hair as a way to to move in to a poem of love for that person. That could be a cool way of getting into a poem, because quite often you think, how do I even start writing a poem?