An Orkney Tapestry

A primula scotica beams at me

but the wind is a 'cat o' nine tails'

as the waves smash against the rocks

in an explosive frenzy of clots

of green, blue and cream curds.

The seals bob up their heads beguilingly

as the sun streams its orange rays on the loch

and the standing stones are silhouetted

against the austere Orkney sky.

Grey clouds buffet the soft landscape

and cows amble benevolently in the heather.

In the pub, fishermen chatter like gulls

and slake their parched throats with

tankards of foaming ale and whisky chasers

as late afternoon shoppers scuttle back

from the cobbled and briny streets.

-Peter Green

My view on the poem

An Orkney Tapestry is an exemplary of descriptive poetry. Deep depiction of a person, animal or inanimate object that is called descriptive poetry.

A contrast genre of narrative poetry where primary core brims with abstract feeling. Rich vocabulary, visual imagery, and adept writing skill, these trio are important for poetic cocktail that is called descriptive poetry. It has a didactic purpose. Without primary passion the success of poetry is difficult but descriptive poetry has overcome this deficit again and again. It is a class of literature that prevailed mainly in 16th 17th 18th centuries in Europe and after a brief recession in the background, it has been flashed again .

Orkney is an archipelago in the Northern isles of Scotland. There is an abundance of marine and avian wildlife there along with archeological sites.

Peter Green belongs to Scotland and he has succeeded in weaving the magnetic moments in words!

Dr Pragya Suman

AN INTERVIEW GIVEN BY PETER GREEN

(1) How was your childhood? Where did it spend?

My childhood was a relatively happy one. I was born in Inverness, the capital of the Highlands of Scotland, in 1959, but moved to Thurso - a small town of 10, 000 people, with my parents and brother immediately after my birth.

(2)Tell me about your profession?

I am a Deputy School Head in a junior secondary school in a small village, Charles Hill, 8 kms from the Namibian border, in Botswana. The name of the school is Rethuseng JSS ( it means 'Helo us' in English! ), and the school teaches about 700 boarders and day scholars.The school is also ethnically diverse and includes Baherero, Basarwa and Bakgalagadi. The children are nice, but not very academically inclined!

(3) what are the impacts of your parents upon you?

My parents were very influential in my later life choices. My father was a teacher and also instilled in me a love of books and literature, in general. He was also a proud Socialist, and this has affected my own largely left wing views on life. I also inherited my mother's drive and determination to succeed, as well as her egalitarian view of the world.

(4) Tell me about Botswana?

Botswana is a peaceful and small, democratic country. There are only about 2.6 million people in the country, and has relatively low levels of corruption, a pioneering and free press, and an independent judiciary, which holds the government to account, when necessary.

(5) Are you a published writer? If yes How

did you first get published?

I am a published writer. My friend Liz, from the UK, encouraged me to send my poems to a magazine in Gloucestershire in England called 'Graffiti'. Over the years, I have had about 13 poems accepted in their periodical, and had the honour of being one of their feature writers, in one of their editions, about 7 years ago.

(5)who are your favourite writers? What type of book do you enjoy?

My favourite writers are F Scott Fitzgerald; Iain Banks ( conventional and Sci-Fi); Julian Barnes; Virginia Woolf; Ray Bradbury and Kurt Vonnegut. I like all genres of writing, including crime and detective fiction.

(6)Tell me about your family? How was your childhood ?

My childhood was a happy one. I was educated well at Thurso High School, along with my only other sibling, my older brother, Hugh. I graduated to go to Aberdeen University in 1977, and obtained a Master of Arts

Honours degree in English and History in 1981. I taught in a variety of schools in Scotland and England, until I moved to Botswana in 1987.

(7) what are your hobbies besides literature?

My hobbies are listening to a diverse range of music, reading, playing pool and walking my dog around Charles Hill, and taking photographs.

(8) How did you manage to fit writing in with other demands on your time?

I usually write poems after the daily grind of work ( by 4:30 pm )

(9)What do you feel about Orkney? Give your views on Scotland?

I love Orkney and its soft, gleaming landscape. It is also steeped in archeological history.

What I like about Scotland ( apart from its transcendentally beautiful landscape ) is its egalitarian principles and love of the ordinary man. There's a Robert Burns quote which sums this up - "We're all Jock Tamson's bairns", meaning people are all the same underneath our differences in class, wealth, social background, etc, etc.I also love the Scottish poet, Hugh Macdiarmid, who outstrips TS Eliot in his modernity, in my humble opinion…

(10)Last question, Why you left Scotland and went to another country Botswana

I was temporarily unemployed and wanted a complete cultural change