Burns Night

For the main course Burns' poem Address To A Haggis is read before the guests are served haggis and Scotch Whisky.
~Hana Carter

Cock-a-leekie soup in teacups? Apparently, I do whatever I please, so I don't know if you should be taking advice from me on how to hold a Burns Night supper. Except I think you should do it however you please, too. We had ours a week early for our own convenience. I'm just sorry that more poets don't have traditional birthday meals, as I am 100% on board for more poetry celebrations.

Cock-a-leekie soup recipe
More Burns Night recipes

Elena said the Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thanket.

My paraphrase of it is: there are a lot of things that can go wrong in this world, so we are appreciating this particular moment of grace we find ourselves in right now.

I am very fond of Burns' "To A Mouse." Matthew's dad, who is from England, read it for us with his best Scottish accent. If you don't have someone to do it for you, this one will do the trick:

a line from To A Mouse
inspired this Poetry Monster image
(that stanza also appears in the title of
Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men)

If you want a song: Ae Fond Kiss

Keeping up with the times: