Mo Shearmon / What I Have to Say

Tha an dàn fada cumasgta Mo Shearmon a’ dèiligeadh ri iomadh cuspair agus a’ gabhail a-steach iomadh ìomhaigh, gach uair mar choltas air na th’ aig am bàrd ri ràdh agus an dòigh air an canar e. ’S e dàn cluicheach, aincheartach, amasgaidh a th’ ann, gun fhios sam bith aig an leughadair càit’ an tèid a stiùireadh no dè tha dol a’ leantainn. Sna dàintean goirid eile nochdaidh faireachdainnean, àiteachan is pearsannan diofraichte, càirdean is nàimhdean còmhla, anns an fhradharc Eòrpach a tha àbhaisteach ann an obair Crìsdean MacIlleBhàin.

The long medley Mo Shearmon treats a range of topics and images as likenesses for what the poet has to say and how he goes about saying it. It’s a playful, mischievous, unpredictable poem where readers can never tell what is coming next or where they will be led, a totally new departure for Gaelic in the twenty-first century. The shorter poems accompanying it deal with different emotions, places and people, friends, enemies and memories, always from the European perspective which is characteristic of Christopher Whyte’s poetry.