Liz Lochhead

Tonight I attended the preview of the installation, 'Competant at Peever'; by Liz Lochhead at Scotland Street School Museum.

Scotland's Makar is revisiting some of her poems, drawings, collages on childhood and primary school.

Liz read a fabulous poem by the late Adrian Mitchell.

BACK IN THE PLAYGROUND BLUES
I dreamed I was back in the playground, I was about four feet high
Yes I dreamed I was back in the playground, standing about four feet high
Well the playground was three miles long and the playground was five miles wide

It was broken black tarmac with a high wire fence all around
Broken black dusty tarmac with a high fence running all around
And it had a special name to it, they called it The Killing Ground

Got a mother and a father they're one thousand years away
The rulers of the Killing Ground are coming out to play
Everybody thinking: 'Who they going to play with today?'

Well you get it for being Jewish
And you get it for being black
You get it for being chicken
And you get it for fighting back
You get it for being big and fat
Get it for being small
Oh those who get it get it and get it
For any damn thing at all

Sometimes they take a beetle, tear off its six legs one by one
Beetle on its black back, rocking in the lunchtime sun
But a beetle can't beg for mercy, a beetle's not half the fun

I heard a deep voice talking, it had that iceberg sound
'It prepares them for Life' - but I have never found
Any place in my life worse than The Killing Ground.

© 1982, the estate of Adrian Mitchell

The exhibition runs from 22 February until 7 April.

This is a fabulous exhibition, which is a collaborative project between Museums Galleries Scotland and Creative Scotland: Iconic Artists in Iconic Places.