13 September 2010

Tuesday poem: 'Finding the cracks' from Heading North

Finding the cracks

I needed to find the edges
of myself, prise a little
let some daylight in

It’s only when touched
that we know
the limits
of ourselves, where our skin stops
where our self ends

a breeze
a hand
a tear


I'm posting another poem from Heading North, partly because I hadn't gotten organised enough to get a poem off anyone else, but also because I had a wee launchy afternoon tea celebration for it on Saturday. It was kind of fun to do a wee reading in my own lounge, which, with the doors to the dining room open, and the dining table removed, becomes quite a large space. Maybe I should host poetry readings ...?

'Finding the cracks' isn't really a very typical poem in the book - most of them are longer and more narrative. But this is kind of the non-narrative heart of it - the emotional story I guess.

Anyway, you'll find more Tuesday poems over here: http://tuesdaypoem.blogspot.com/, check them out.

2 comments:

Kathleen Jones said...

Congratulations on the launch! I liked the central idea of teh poem and particularly the second stanza.

Helen Rickerby said...

Thank you! I'm reading your KM biography at the moment, so it's very cool to be in Tuesday-Poem contact with you. I'm only about a quarter of the way in so far, but enjoying it very much. I've read all the others, though not for a while, but they tended to make me angry. One lovely thing about your book so far is that you've made Violet a person - as, of course, she was. But that isn't how she's really been treated before. What an enormous amount of work a biography must be! Thanks for doing it.