JIM Carruth was commissioned to write a poem to commemorate Aye Write's!

tenth anniversary, and read it a celebratory event at Glasgow's book festival at the weekend. It represents the journey of the word from writer to reader in a rural setting.

THE WORD

1

Through showers and sun

Thought and passion

2

Beneath the bellow of a bull

Passion and the voice

3

Bleating from the byre

Voice forming sound

4

Shepherd's sharp whistle

Sound shaping word

5

Wing beat in a skein

Word on a line

6

Furrow left in a field

Line on a page

7

Each fleece in the flock

Page and chapter

8

Beside a piglet, a sow

Chapter and the book

9

As barley to a combine

Book and the reader

10

Hungry calf at the pail

Reader and the word