In St Mungo’s Cathedral, Kirkwall on the Orkney Islands, there is a tapestry made from remnants of materials found in Norwegian churches (old curtains, tablecloths and so forth). The tapestry had been gifted by a Norwegian diocese as a demonstration of their bonds of affection for people of the Orkney Islands. I thought this was a powerful image. I thought of the remnants of material objects that tie us together, to the past, and to the future. A ‘peerie boat’ is, in Orkney, a small boat.

Remnants of a Shetland shawl once perfectly spun,
Scraps of a tent bleached in the Cornish sun,
Shreds of bunting from parties in our street,
What’s left of my wedding suit the moths didn’t eat.

These fabrics make our sails,
The match of any storm to come,
Weaving plaids that span
The wide Firths and narrow Sounds,
The Skerries and Deeps.
Sails that lift our peerie boat over white-lipped waves
To the gentle water of our older age.