The Politician’s clock

Weel done Edinburgh for returning the “politician’s clock” tae the window of Transit House on Calton Hill.

In this post I share what I have found in the archives about this clock [the quotes about time and clocks come from works by Gabriel García Márquez and Chigozie Obioma].

The footnote poem is by me and is written for Catherine Ritchie (mother of David Ross)

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Filmed at Transit House, Calton Hill, Edinburgh.

That small place in the whole of time:

To play this short film please click here or on the image above

This film is based on a poem that I recently wrote on the Politician’s clock, in Transit House, Calton Hill Edinburgh.

The poem is for Catherine Ritchie who was the granddaughter of the clockmaker. She appeared in the logo of her grandfather’s business as the girl standing on a chair to adjust the clock .

I sometimes wonder what it would be like to live in a time when we had not benefited from the imagination of others? Such as Edinburgh folk like James Clerk Maxwell, Patrick Geddes and Alexander McCall Smith.

Please note: this is a non-commercial film. All material is mine except for the archive footage which I do not have copyright beyond that of 'personal use'.

 

CATHERINE:

Child on tippy-toes
on a chair
winding her grandfaither’s clock.

Wee Catherine
we are a’ in transit
facing a warld in by’oot.

It wis saiven-twenty when you finished
winding the clock
so the sailors recalled [arriving and leaving Leith docks]

And noo we hae “electric time”
and yer grandfaither stands tall in
Maxwell Clerk waves, , , ,

For A S T R O V [and us all]
the transit clock
will strike TWELVE
and stop.

But Catherine, wee Catherine, the Bell of the transit clock now rings again.

Granite piers do not float –
stars guide
and voyaging sailors discover
that time is not ‘two faced’.