StAnza's map of Scotland in poems

The poetry map of Scotland - as seen by StAnza - is starting to take shape.

This is just a taster image above.

You can find and explore the interactive map here https://mapsengine.google.com/map/embed?mid=zlqrqfPpHmPI.ki3k4OoDqFXQ or go here http://stanzapoetry.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/the-map-revealed/ to find out how to add your own poem.

Writing the North

An opportunity to write the map of Shetland and Orkney. A call for poetry and other writing geographically located in these islands of the North. All you do is find your location and add your poem.

Don't try to submit on our graphic above! We know you are too techie for that. Find out more here http://www.writingthenorth.com/writing-the-map/

Obsession with maps

Maps may be more important to poets than even I thought. And I like maps.

Troubadours were travelling poets who went from court to castle performing their poems often with musical accompaniment. The traditional view associates the troubadour with the Pyranees and southwest France in the 11th century Occitania, but the art may have its roots in the Moorish kingdoms of southern Spain and North Africa. And of course courtly love (their main theme) has something in common with the love poetry of Arab tradition too.

But back to maps. These men and women had to memorise their route as they travelled from wealthy patron to patron in the same way as they memorised their poetry. And it might be considered that better mapping techniques were a positive advantage in the successful promotion of their wares.

A link between maps and poetic form? Oral poetry has long been a repository of genealogy, so why not geography? Maybe our early explorers and cartographers had more in common with the venturing poet than the action man/pensive artist dichotomy would lead us to suppose.

More on troubadours here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troubadour.