 | Nancy Biography: Nancy has been writing poetry for the last couple of years since emerging from
the chrysalis of mothering 5 children. As they are growing up and spreading
their wings, so is she, including publishing a book called Being Church,
a conversation about possibilities for church in the 21st century. You can
find her blogging at http://WAWWF.blogspot.com. Charley |
Sculling Skills
You know, dads sometimes have their uses;
mine wasn’t good at praise, encouragement,
no large displays of love and wantedness,
but summer holidays - St. Annes-on-Sea
he taught me to row.
An unpretentious skill unless by chance
you come upon somebody drowning
with a boat nearby, or find yourself
ensconced in Oxbridge life.
I did not – but still…
On one stagnating day – another boating lake,
circling through pondweed, mallard ducks, dark thoughts,
a handsome boatman, watching my return,
threw out a few flirtatious words
about my strokes -
enough to keep a latent swan afloat.
Since then I’ve found that tiling, gardening,
picking, packing, bottling fruit – all
can be recruited for seductive ruses;
yes, dads do have their uses.
first printed in South magazine
Borderline Perceiving
Postmodern times this may take some believing:
five children, just one husband, by design,
I don’t have any problems with conceiving.
Does the concept of marriage need retrieving
from meet someone, divorce, then realign?
Postmodern times this may take some believing.
Have we relegated leaving and
cleaving,
a romantic, fairy-tale storyline?
I don’t have any problems in conceiving
this notion of marriage is misleading
that couples cheat, relationships decline.
Postmodern times this may take some believing,
as celebrities live seething and leaving,
perhaps a stable marriage is benign.
I don’t have any problems in conceiving
through joy and pain there can begin a
weaving
as love and hurt react and intertwine.
I don’t have any problems in conceiving,
postmodern times this may take some believing.
first printed in Red Ink
Spring-loaded
Click
Click
Click cl-cl-cl-click click
Click click
Scribble
Click
Click
Click cl-cl-cl-click click
Click click
Scribble
Scribble scribble click click
Pause, scratch out
Scribble
Scribble
Scribble scribble scribble
Click
Click
Click cl-cl-cl-click click
Click click
Scribble scribble scribble
Scribble scribble scribble stop
no, comma, no
Click
Click
Click scribble
Click scratch-out
Click scribble scribble scribble
Click click
Clickety click
Scribble sigh click sigh scribble
Click
Click
Scribble
Scribble
Scribble scribble scratch-out scribble
Stop
no
yes
stop
Poetry on a biro.