With an overflow crowd and squealing bagpipes, the Scottish Society of Martha’s Vineyard kicked off its 33rd annual Burns Nicht Supper at the P.A. Club last Saturday night. Chef Tom Engley and crew served up a feast fit for a laird. With haggis, bashed neeps, finnin haddie, prime rib, and trifle, no one went home hungry. The internationally acclaimed Scottish Society Singers regaled the crowded room, while the auction and raffle replenished the society’s scholarship coffers. Fergus and Davina Porter, who hail from the homeland, delivered an authentic Immortal Memory in praise of the bard, Robert Burns. The evening wound down as Chief Bruce McNamee blessed us with “Amazing Grace” on the pipes. Phyllis Meras, one of the original Burns attendees, summed up the evening well: “Best one ever,” she told me as she walked out the door. Aye, that it was.
Highland Song
By Steve Ewing, December 2014
Feel the peace of solitude
along our burns
and on our bens
Pick the fruit of summer
from our meadows
with your friends
Drink the cool fresh bounty
deep beneath our strands
Eat our freshest harvest
reaped by Highland hands
Walk our windswept stretches
where ships have
come to grief
Stroll our heathered hillsides
let them lull you
off to sleep
Lay upon your back
as the stars hang down
on high
Stretch your fingers out
till they touch
our jet black sky
May the peace of Highland living
settle in your bones
May the lightness of your being
stir memories of your home
May you cherish our first greeting
dear as our last song
May you always feel the blessing of the Highlands
all life long
By Steve Ewing
(December 2014)