Words by Mairi Campbell-Jack | Artwork by Chris Kent
To celebrate our relaunch and rebrand our writer-in-residence has penned an ode to the feelings of fear and wonder that creativity in motion brings
It starts in the boiling ocean,
vomited from volcanic vents
floats on the water with algae bloom,
laps upon the grainy shore.
Plants each pad and heaves to the forest,
rolls and buries itself in the friable earth,
nestles with small seeds,
soaks in the smooth oozing mud.
Twists to union with roots
transparent, young and snappable
in their urgent stretching for water
until they thicken, slow, grow fibrous and tough.
Up it runs the supporting trunk,
climbs to the canopy
squawks among the birds
catches hold of the poster paint tails
and lifts to the sky, to lick lava from the rims of volcanoes
with wind rushing on its face.
then down it drifts
cushioned by air
and settles beside you to ask.
“Why is your heart so shrivelled with fright?
Why so scared? Come,” it says
“Come, and I will show you everything.
Do not be afraid. You need not be afraid.”
Mairi Campbell-Jack: Writer-in-Residence
Originally, from the Black Isle, Mairi has lived in Edinburgh for eighteen years, she works in politics for a charity.
Mairi has an MA in Creative Writing from Edinburgh Napier University. Her poetry has appeared in The Scotsman, Poetry Scotland, Popshot and has been anthologized. She had a double pamphlet of poetry This is a Poem, published by Burning Eye Press in 2012, and one of its poems I Forced My Vanity To Stand on a Cliff, was chosen by the Poetry Book Society as it’s Poem of the Week in 2013. Mairi has performed her poetry at the Glastonbury Festival, many Scottish spoken word nights and alongside Liz Lockhead, Lousie Welsh and Vicky Jarrett.
Mairi’s prose has appeared in The List, Octavius and Listrature Vol 1. Her political non-fiction writing has appeared on numerous Scottish political blogs.
Like everyone else at Fearlessly, Mairi loves to spend her spare time reading and normally has three to four books on the go. She also enjoys baking, crafting, walking, art, using the fact she has a child as an excuse to act childishly, annoying her boyfriend, binging Netflix, and lusting after fashion she cannot afford.
Mairi has recently finished a creative non-fiction book and is searching for an agent, as well as an illustrator to work with on her graphic novel script, while also working on a YA dystopian fantasy with her daughter.
Chris Kent
Chris Kent is an artist, illustrator and woodworker who identities as non-binary. Chris lives in the Scottish Borders and sometimes works in Edinburgh for Edinburgh Museums and running workshops. Chris explores ideas of identity/uncertainty mainly by making art.
