Council Convener Harvey Johnston has eloquently summed up the past year in a reflective piece he has written, marking today's anniversary of the first lockdown, one year on.
The Year the World Slowed Doon
Bright yellow verge and gerdeen king
Most welcome harbinger of Spring
What joy a daffodil does bring
Ye cooldna come too soon.
The Vernal equinox is here
Your trumpet fanfare tells us clear
That we’ve survived a whole damn year
The year the world slowed doon.
This time last year I mind on plain
Ye’d scarce come oot tae cheer us when
That germ, hid struck. (Oh what a pain)
Hid fairly changed wur tune.
Lock doon: Lock up: Contain syndrome
All bide apace and stey at home
No more the planet’s face tae roam
The year the world slowed doon.
No schools, no shops, no freends tae see
Poor owld folk needan company
Then up stepped wur community
Wur Islands’ greatest boon
We’ve gained by changan doon a gear
And lucked more at what’s near and dear
Enjoyed wur Soolka roond us here
The year the world slowed doon.
Hail vaccine makers most sublime
Now we can shift that paradigm
Hid is a metter noo, of time
Afore wur all immune.
Hail heroes of the N.H.S.
Hail Carers caran wi’ finesse
All volunteers we richly bless
The year the world slowed doon.
St Magnus, Orkney’s guiding star
Ye’ve stood through warse than this by far
Seen plague and pestilence and war
Stood firm for Isles and toon.
The coloured coat you wear tonight
Of red and blue and yellow light
Says Orkney’ll see this through all right
The year the world slowed doon.
Harvey Johnston. March 2021.
