Earlier this afternoon I had written the essential emails for the day, and just thought I would peek between the covers of my newest poetry acquisition.
I knew I liked the poems as I had heard Deborah Alma read some of them alongside Cape poet James Sheard last night at the wonderful Mid Wales Arts Centre – but I found myself turning page after page – devouring each poem as if it might be the last poetry meal I’d ever have, knowing there would be time enough to return to each one again and again – but unable to stop until I’d reached the smell of the poems in the pencil (the last line of the last poem)
These are poems how I like them to be – full of surreal imagery which makes the telling of how real life is, from a real woman’s perspective, clearer, more magical, more tragic, more universal. These are poems about when you go to Aldi rather than Tesco’s, how a space hopper with its leering grin can be of use to a grown woman, and is written by a woman who has survived the bad times with scars but with grace, and who knows that clouds pass, seasons change, and just blooming well hangs on in there
These poems inspire me to want to immediately pick up my own pen – and that I think is the biggest compliment I can give. So, I will shut my eyes and open the pamphlet and share one of her poems with you – and then do just that – get on with my own writing – braver and inspired. Nadia x
here is the second half of the poem (though you really need to read the whole pamphlet):
He Sees Me
…..
He says when I sleep I sigh
and he watches me wake and smiles
at the fuzz of my mind and my hair in the morning.
He is charmed, he is charmed; I begin
to charm even myself,
he sees me so lovely.
This poem was first published in ‘Hallelujah for 50ft Women’ (Bloodaxe 2015)
TRUE TALES OF THE COUNTRYSIDE is by Deborah Alma, aka the Emergency Poet, and is published by Emma Press.
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