Artist

Alexander Averin

Friday 12 April 2013

Fragile Days



 
 
 
Fragile Days
 
The thick coat I wear is  Irish tweed and
bears a poet’s pocket, a deep vessel
for the rescue of snippets: phrases, dreams,
memories,  ideas and inspirations,
The coat is soft charcoal grey and crossed with
blackened herring bones, quite long and belted,
woollen, warm and wide but no-one can tell
how very safe and snug I am inside
its tailored sanctuary or understand
my need for its constancy as I go
on my daily round.
 
Today, another swiftly passing day
of no merit,  I had eavesdropped; something 
overheard stilled me into silence. I
disliked its nuance, I  saved its essence, 
wrapped most of it up in sorrow and threw
the rest away.
 
I may seem calm but only I can feel,
as I walk, that my tread upon the stair
is aggressive, frustrated by cause of
my fear for the fragility of a
world which has lost all of its subtlety.
 
Beseiged now by its trappings I find myself
miscast till I am dizzy with fear that
I may topple.  But my poet’s  pocket
of words are close, they guide me away from
the edge of the abyss to a place of
recluse where I can write, safe once more in
my withdrawing room.
 
Cait O’Connor
 

6 comments:

Teresa Evangeline said...

"My poet's pocket of words..." I love that. Lovely poem, Cait.

Frances said...

Cait, your poem really touched me. I will be returning here again to read it again.

Thank you also for the link to Glenda Jackson's speech.

What a week....

xo

ds said...

Oh, I love this! A "poet's pocket" indeed. April is "National Poetry Month" here, and one of the most quoted phrases for children is "keep a poem in your pocket" (from Jack Prelutsky, I believe). So for me there is that on top of all the rest. Thank you for sharing it.

Pondside said...

Beautiful, Cait!

Mairéad said...

Love the poem. Your coat sounds very special, like a blanket to shield yourself against winter and the world.

SAS said...

Oh, I like this and hugely relate to its essence.

Flip side...I've on occasion told someone that I liked and connected with on a first meeting, "If only I had a little pocket to carry you in."

Thank you, Cait. I'm saving this one.