Sunday, August 23, 2015

Tuesday Poem - 'Shoes' by Bryan Walpert



Shoes


How they make their way
towards the back door.

A row of them, his, hers,
each day picked up, placed

in a closet rack. Pair after
pair they return, as if willed,

as if marking a thing in the heart
left undone.

This pair wants the garden.
This the rain. This the feet

prowling the carpet, late, baby
in arms, a creature unable

to walk or to crawl, yet who
knows she wants to be moved

to sleep, rests only in motion
from one room to the next,

will recall nothing of these days
of pure need filled only by

those who want nothing more
than to get through each cry

to the swinging bridge of silence
before the next, nothing more

than to move this moment
except, perhaps, to hold it,

like this swaddled bundle
she takes so he might

wash a dish, fold
a shirt, put away shoes

unaccountably returned,
open-mouthed, as if surprised

by their own hunger: this pair
wanting the puddle, this

the hard slap of stone,
the-run-across-against-the-light,

the wait-up-for-me-guys,
the that's-my-cab-

this-is-my-life-
I-will-not-look-back.


What fun I had earlier this year travelling around New Zealand with the other two Hoop-La poets, Bryan Walpert and Carolyn McCurdie. And didn't our books do well! All three in the best seller list!


And it was so much fun that Bryan and Carolyn are whooping over to Melbourne in late August to do it all over again. They are at the House of Bricks on Thursday 27th August and The Dan on Saturday 29th August and Sporting Poets on Sunday 30th August. (For details see below.)

But the one I am organising is the big one on Friday 28th August – A Big Read to Celebrate NZ Poetry Day - with 24 local poets and our two visiting poets joining forces at Collected Works in the Nicholas Building 37 Swanston Street from 5 – 9 pm. It's going to go off. I can guarantee.


Thursday 27th August – 6-30 pm
House of Bricks, 40 Budd Street Collingwood

Saturday 29th August - 2-5pm
Poetry At The Dan – Dan O'Connell Hotel - 225 Canning Street Carlton

Sunday 30th August 5pm
Sporting Poets – The Charles Weston Hotel - 27 Weston Street Brunswick

1 comment:

  1. What a wonderful poem, Jennifer: well worth a re-read!

    Have a wonderful, celebratory 28th.

    ReplyDelete