Beyond Borders Scotland and Dove Tales, the Association of Scottish Writers for Peace, collaborated on the Beyond Writing Competition, aiming to facilitating dialogue and cultural exchange through the creative writing and storytelling.    

The competition consisted of three rounds; Inspirational Women, Creative Peace and Beyond Borders.  

This piece by AC Clarke won Round II: Creative Peace. The competition’s judge, Jean Rafferty of Dove Tales, described the piece: It works in a profound and deceptively unconventional way. Both provocation and incantation, its hypnotic rhythm and timeless imagery are designed not to lull readers but to unsettle them. Although only four verses long and written in simple, direct language, it nevertheless manages to challenge the reader’s preconceptions, undercutting the narrator’s invitation to hospitality with implicit reproach for creating the conditions being offered.

This is writing by a poet at the height of her powers, subtle and sensitive, with a quality which speaks to the deep spirituality at the heart of this piece.

—

INVITATION

Come here into our broken lands.

Our veiled eyes call you.

Come with your hands open

we will greet you

with hands open

and pierced.

We will give you the stones

of our fallen houses for bread

for oil, blood brimming deep jars.

Our children will garland you

with dying flowers.

Cross the line into our daily prison.

Take on the crimson

of our shame.

We will tell you stories

to keep you from sleep.

Join us. We are waiting.

We have looked for you across dark seas.

Come with your hearts open

we will meet you

with hearts open

and pierced.