Marratide

William Martin (1925-2010) was born in New Silksworth, Co. Durham. During the Second World War, he was a radio technician in the RAF, based near Karachi, where he was inspired by the Eastern religious and philosophical traditions. After being demobbed he became a gas fitter and later served in the Audiology Department of Sunderland Royal Infirmary, retiring as Head of Department. He lived in Sunderland for over half a century, settling there during the 1950s. He was an active member of CND for many years, taking part in the ritual boarding of nuclear submarines in Holy Loch, Scotland in 1961. He became an artist and had work purchased and exhibited by Sunderland Art Gallery. However, oil paints and a young family were not an easy combination, and poetry became his medium from the mid 1960s onwards. For some years he wrote without any recognition, but in 1971 he had a book of poetry published to commemorate the Wearmouth 1300 Festival (Tidings of our Bairnsea). This was later followed by Cracknrigg (1983) and Hinny Beata (1987) with Taxus, and Marra Familia (1993) and Lammas Alanna (2000) with Bloodaxe. His retrospective, Marratide: Selected Poems, edited by Peter Armstrong and Jake Morris-Campbell, is published by Bloodaxe in 2025.

William Martin is a remembrancer, patiently polishing the common coins of street games, folk songs and customs, and putting them back into circulation… David Jones comes to mind, but not as an immediate ancestor. Martin seems closer to George Mackay Brown, firmly rooted in a specific community and able to give the elements of its common life a sacramental value. But perhaps he is closest of all to the Vasko Popa of Earth Erect, eschewing private poetry to restore the collective symbols, releaf the ikons with gold.

• 9 Peter Armstrong: William Martin: Gravity Lines19 Jake Morris-Campbell: William Martin: Slipstreams27 A note on the choice of poems28 Acknowledgementsfrom CRACKNRIGG (1983)30 When May Be Out30 from Hen Meneu * The Old Bush34 Crist Gwyn * The White Christ 37 The Even Ships39 The Round Dance41 The Bald Ship 44 from A19 Hymn 47 from Kildan Fragments 50 Marratide from HINNY BEATA (1987)54 from Malkuth65 Wiramutha Helix87 from Mothergate89 from Anna Marra Missa89 Moreneta91 Song of the Cotia Lass94 Song: ‘We’ll rise in the morning’ from MARRA FAMILIA (1993)97 from Image Ark 106 Song: ‘Will dayligone fash’108 from Anna Navis 120 from Triptych121 Slogan Bread from LAMMAS ALANNA (2000)124 Aforeword128 Mort Tiamat130 Psalm131 Quest134 from I Johnbird 137 Maytime139 Scordie143 Exile144 The Seafarer148 Bede’s Going149 Six Island Sunset153 Midwinter Song 157 from In Easthope160 from Images from Samuel Palmer 163 Bairnseed166 from Song: ‘We meet at the lamp’168 Song: ‘As aa was gannin through Chester-le-Street’170 from His Bright Silver 174 Song: A Wearside version ‘It’s O but aa ken well’176 from Durham Beatitude 179 Notes