Jim Carruth, the Church of Scotland elder who is Glasgow's Poet Laureate

The Poet Laureate Elder

Wednesday April 15 2015

“I suppose most poets have been writing since they were youngsters – but I only started in my early 30s.”

Jim Carruth might only have started writing poetry in his 30s – but he’s come a long way since then, becoming Glasgow’s Makar, or Poet Laureate in July 2014.

He’s now authored six books of poetry and has just produced his first full collection, Killochries, which he describes as a ‘verse novella’, created from fragments of poetry that are wound together to form a cohesive story detailing a year in the life of two very different people.

“It’s a book that tells the story of the relationship between two men – one, an elderly farmer, devout in his faith and trusting in God and his old King James Bible; the other, a young man, critical, agnostic and dismissive of the rural way of life, sent to work on the sheep farm by his mother, mainly to dry him out but also to give him a chance to reconsider his somewhat dissolute life.

“The story takes place over the course of a year spent on the farm.

“As the winter breaks, so the two men begin to be drawn together to a better understanding of each other and the young man begins to realize that what he thought of as primitive, has a language and depth that all the knowledge of modern life could not prepare him for.”

“It’s my attempt to convey a coming to faith of someone who embarks on a journey with no clear desire or idea what he wants out of life,” says Jim.

An elder of Freeland Church at Bridge of Weir for over 20 years, Jim sees the book as something he felt he needed to do to give back to the Church in this day and age when it seems to be constantly under attack.

“Some of the commentary and criticism thrown at the church these days, is just terrible. There’s not even an attempt to be balanced in the criticism.

“I‘ve been working on Killochries on and off for around 10 years,” Jim says. “I guess as I have been exploring different aspects of faith I've been able to add to and subtract from the fragments of verse that have gone towards the collection, because I needed to be sure that each piece actually contributed to the story as it went along.

“There is beauty; there is love; there is tragedy. All life that can be found on a farm over the course of a year is there.”

Jim was brought up on the family farm near Kilbarchan and the Church has always played a role in his life.
“I was a Sunday school teacher for years before I became an elder,” he says. “Now my wife, Lorna is an elder at Freeland as well.”

“Due to my rural upbringing, I find that much of my writing is centred around the land and the seasons of the year, while other work might well be about either real or fictional people but perhaps in an agricultural environment.

“Lorna and I still live only a mile away from the family farm, so I’m well-grounded in the countryside.”
However, Jim claims that neither the young man or the old farmer in Killochries is based on a real person.

“In truth, I've drawn on aspects of many people and many situations to form my characters, though I have known people who have certainly shared similarities with them.”

Jim’s immensely pleased and proud to have been recognized for his poetry and in the post of Makar for the city.

“I have the honour of trying to fill the post after Liz Lochhead, so no pressure then!”

Killochries is available from Freight Books and from Amazon in both paperback and kindle editions