Sunday 6 September 2015

The Poems & Tales: The Evil that Men do

Title: The Evil that Men Do: Limited Edition of 80 Poems & Tales in Scots & English by Sheena Blackhall Published by Lochlands, Maud, Aberdeenshire.Printed by Thistle Reprographics, 55 Holburn Street Aberdeen. Cover: Children in the Snow by Hiroshi Hamaya (free photos on Wikimedia Commons)Cost: £3.00.Copyright: S. Blackhall August 2015. The cover photograph is a striking image of Japanese children: ‘Born and raised in Tokyo, Hiroshi Hamaya (Japanese, 1915—1999) began his career documenting that city from the air and the street, working as both an aeronautical photographer and a freelance contributor to magazines. An assignment in 1939 took him to the rural coast of the Sea of Japan, where he became interested in documenting the traditional customs of its people and the austere environment of the region…In the early 1950s he settled in the seaside town of Ōiso, where he produced books based on earlier projects. Later in his career…he made studies of landscapes found in Japan and abroad.’ The Paul Getty Museum For more information on publications by Sheena Blackhall, visit http://sheenablackhall.blogspot.com or the on-line catalogue of the Nat. Library of Scotland www.nls.uk/catalogues/online/index/html. All of Blackhall’s poems in Scots and English, are now uploaded on www.poemhunter.com. Her website can be found on http://smiddleton4.wix.com/sheena-blackhall. Many of these poems were written during a trip to Liverpool & Chester. Two pieces are Scots owersetts from ‘The Pillow Book’ of Sei Shōnagon (清少納言?, lesser councilor of state Sei), (c. 966–1017/1025)who was a Japanese author and a court lady who served the Empress Teishi (Sadako) around the year 1000 during the middle Heian period.There is also a Scots owersett of a victim’s account of the bombing of Hiroshima from Children of the Ashes: The People of Hiroshima after the bomb by Robert Jungk, pub by Paladin Books 1985. Thanks are due to the ongoing support and encouragement of Les Wheeler, in agreeing to publish this collection.