A SKIPTON councillor was honoured to receive a newly-penned poem from the British poet laureate about the historic 'no' vote which sees the continued union of Scotland and the UK.
Only a day after the Scottish independence referendum, Cllr John Kerwin-Davey and fellow Cllr Robert Heseltine attended a Hope and Glory black tie dinner at Leeds Minster.
During the event, Britain's poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who is Scottish, performed a poetry recital where she read out the new poem titled September 2014.
The short, 16-line verse reflects on Scotland's momentous decision to stay in the Union, and opens with 'Tha goal agam art' - the Gaelic translation of 'I love you'.
It reads: 'A thistle can draw blood, so can a rose, growing together where the river flows, shared currency, across a border it can never know.
'Where, somewhen, Robbie Burns might swim, or pilgrim Keats come walking, out for love of him.'
To close the new poem, the 58-year-old Glaswegian writes: 'Aye, here’s to you, cousins, sisters, brothers, in your brave, bold, brilliant land: The thistle jags our hearts, take these roses from our bloodied hands.'
Cllr Kerwin-Davey, who was chosen to receive her hand-written piece, said: "She wrote the poem to commemorate the continued union of the United Kingdom.
"There was a fanfare of trumpets playing as I went up to collect it. I feel very privileged to receive it because it's a unique manuscript. It was a marvellous culmination to the evening."
Cllr Kerwin-Davey was also pleased about the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum.
"I'm mightily relieved it was a decent majority of retaining our family together," he said. "I hope that's the end of it for the foreseeable future."
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