The Kilbryde Burns Club welcomed back guest speaker Tracy Harvey last month to the pavilion of the Village Bowling Club.
It was her first appearance at Kilbryde since pre-COVID times in November 2019.
Prior to Tracy’s performance, president Ian Ross had the sad task of advising the members of the death of Bill Hood, a long-time member of the club.
A short period of quiet reflection was observed in memory of Bill.
Tracy Harvey is a poet from Ayrshire who writes predominantly in the Scots language, and is always well received when she visits Kilbryde.
Her presentation consisted of mainly new poems that she had written during lockdown, including a poem entitled “Tae a lockdown”, which was written in the style of Burns’ “Tae a moose”.
All her poems were received with great enthusiasm by the audience.
Prior to the tea interval, president Ian announced that Harvey Littlejohn, the only remaining active founding member of the Kilbryde Burns Club had just celebrated his 97th birthday.
The tea staff appeared with a birthday cake and the company gave a heartfelt rendition of “happy birthday to you” for Harvey.
The second half of the evening consisted of contributions from club members Jim King, Alex Baird, Harvey Littlejohn, Andy Quinn, May Lobban, Jim Leslie and John Mitchell.
The evening’s entertainment was completed with Tracy reciting her poem ‘Betty and Leeanne through the wa", a poem which is a particular favourite of the club members who remember the days of neighbours looking out for one and another.
Everyone was completely enthralled by the construction, sentiments and delivery of all her poems.
This was evidenced by the number of members who took time to speak to Tracy during the tea interval and at the conclusion of the evening.
The vote of thanks was proposed by Alan Nicol before the evening closed with a rousing rendition of “Auld Lang Syne”.
The club normally meets on the first Monday of each month from October through to April, with the May meeting being an outing visiting places in Scotland with a Burns’ connection.
The objects of the club are the study, discussion and promotion of the life, poetry, songs and letters of Scotland’s National Bard and allied topics.
The club also celebrates the Bard’s birthday each year, with the traditional Burns’ Supper and the next meeting on Monday, December 12 when the club are delighted to welcome the current president of the Robert Burns World Federation, Alan Beck.
He will to deliver "A Toast to Scotland".
As usual visitors will be made most welcome.
All interested in coming along to any of the meetings and learning more about the National Bard should contact Jim or Patricia Leslie on 01355 235189.
Don't miss the latest headlines from around Lanarkshire. Sign up to our newsletters here.
And did yo u know Lanarkshire Live is on Facebook? Head over to our page to give us a like and share.
