I was privileged to attend a poetry evening the other night with some real heavyweights-Fleur Adcock, Peter Bland and Kevin Ireland with newcomer (to NZ anyway), Amanda Eason. The first three are old friends and moving in to their eighties.
And wow, good poetry is very sexy! Peter Bland’s wife is now dead and he writes so beautifully about her and the emptiness without her.
Expecting miracles
in memory of my wife
Living without you…
Is a daily exile,
Although I could cop out
And swear you’re always here-
which of course is true. But
today I’m not discussing a haunting.
What I’m missing is the living you
I took so mercilessly for granted,
The one who would wake
To put on beauty
Much as the day puts on dawn.
Living without you I keep
The distance between us as free of daily clutter
As I can. In that
Great emptiness
I’m expecting miracles
To take place
Of where you came and went.
Peter Bland
This is just the tip of a wonderful iceberg. Buy the book, it is all very readable and poets get such poor press sales.
Kevin Ireland’s wife is very much alive. I think she was the envy of many women in the room. I know I would loved to have been loved into old age like this.
The title of his poem is Epithalamium and I had to look it up.
-
a song or poem celebrating a marriage.Epithalamiumfor JanetLet’s celebrate a mystery solved:you havemade me aware that I’m here for love, funromance,warmth,dazzling chat and, of course,for the glorious food and wine. The list goeson and on. It’s the whole deal-includingthe gorgeous intimacy that grips me all over-it’s even inside me. I breathe wife in and out,and there’s the friendship and the thrill.I now know I was born for the buzz of it,for that’s what fond words do. Only you canmake it real. Each time I reach into a pocketI find you’ve slipped me the time of my life.Kevin Ireland
Buy the book! It was a stunning evening, all free (koha) but I just had to buy four books of poetry. It was in Bookmark, a bookstore in Devonport.
Amanda Eason hasn’t published a new book yet but keep an eye out as I am sure she will be doing so in the near future.
On a less uplifting, but quite practical note, my little house has a kitchen!
It is frustrating not being able to choose colours and wiring placement etc. but I guess that’s why the cost is kept down.
However, I’m not 80 yet and grateful for that, so no use being envious so I’m trying to take the advice below:
And because its the silly season, Maggie is dressed appropriately…
Have a good weekend, FG
Fluffy George 