Arts & International Affairs: Volume 2, Number 2 | Page 94

and to, the world? How does it honour the past while gazing to the future? And how does it do so while being authentically Edinburgh? The clues to all these questions are to be found in Walsh’s words. His poem proved universal in a city stunned by murder which was intended to divide. It resonated where the well-intentioned but pompous rhetoric of political expression could not. The poem inspired communion because it provoked but also soothed. It transcended the time and place of its reading, bridging the local and the global. Walsh could not change what had happened. But he could, and did, speak to how we might respond in the aftermath. “Choose love”, he said. Walsh’s was a masterclass in bearing witness. And now it is over to you, Edinburgh. References Walsh, Tony. (����) This Is The Place | Forever Manchester poem. . Edinburgh International Festival. (����) Standard life opening event bloom: A platform for the flowering of the human spirit. . 93