Friday, 8 March 2013

Songs for my Grandmother

Below are the poems that form the text of Seaming To's Songs for My Grandmother, her song sequence featured in today's (9 March) Financial Times. I worked closely with Seaming when writing these and spent a really lovely day with her, her grandmother and mother, which I treasure.
Amazing, very creative experience. I have found the musical and performative results extremely moving.


Tour details:

Sun 10 March- LONDON - Purcell Room, part of "Women of the World" festival
Mon 11 March- MANCHESTER- Band on the Wall
Tues 12 March- BRAWBY- The Shed
Wed 13 March- BRIGHTON- Dome, Studio Theatre
Fri 15 March- OXFORD- North Wall Arts Centre


http://sounduk.net/event_page.php?eid=36


Text of poems:

Through

while your breath becomes shorter
your body grows tired
soft skin gains more creases
movements less fire

the squirrels keep stealing
the bulbs that we bring
mistaking for nuts
what we plant for spring

change that will change
every move every step
slowing down holding on
letting go of the breath

we can watch it with sadness
we can watch it with love
we can hold it in quietness
we can cry out 'enough!'

but change keeps on changing
whatever we do
the moment still passing
as life slips on through

the breath become shorter
the body more tired
the soft skin the creases
the movements of fire

the squirrels still stealing
the bulbs that we bring
the nuts they are hoarding
become tulips of spring



I Ask

I ask when they first kiss
maybe one or two years after
she tells me bashfully
such hard questions to answer

She points out a play on words
disappointed I do not know
she wants so much for me to understand
gently kindly so

We look at the picture
tiny, one inch by two in size
the vicars stand beside the couple
24 December 1945

A choir sings at the wedding
It must have been a lovely day
her eyes closed she is listening
her head nods knowingly



Graduation wish

May a star rise up to meet you
in the origami folds
May the road of paper lead you
to a tissue house of gold

Not everybody looking sees
(alive and full of colour)
behind her poise, authority
performing father
remaining mother

Where the wind is always at your back
your feet firm on the ground
and God has smoothed the paper flat
with the hollow of his crown

Not everyone who looks can see
(her face so full of colour)
past the reserve, beyond the need
performing father, retaining mother
(spirited, joyful, free)



Edge of Bearable

I do not say
she does not let me say
family of voices, clustering
before the edge of meaning
tread cautiously
the edge of sense

the shell is porcelain thin
do not break through
here where we are
keep holding in
tread cautiously
keep sheltering

my mouth is stopped
from storms we do not speak of
the quiet of after
winds long since died down
debris folded into earth, rich brown
the quiet of after
life becoming new and green
the storms moved on
the winds long gone

I do not stray
she does not let me stray
beyond the edge of bearable
and so we leave behind
the weather that I never knew
and there is little walking here, less witnessing
here where we are no more
beside the edge of bearable
we sing we fly we soar



I Only Look The Part In Photographs

only just touching 
your language with my fingertips
see how I stand, still, silent, awkward
failing to claim the great the original chinese

so many things you will not speak
so many things I cannot tell

cloth falls in folds around me
essential buttons gone
I fumble, cannot fasten it
I disappoint, we disappoint
I only look the part in photographs
this hand me down that doesn't fit



what was..

what was not quite then memories now reeld back un saya ble



Circle haiku

before words see in silence

[before words see in silence
words see in silence before
see in silence before words
in silence before words see
silence before words see in]



Chinese Proverb

When drinking water Tong Lai Yuen died
from river See Yuen geography in memory
of our teacher Yuen thinking of favourite
consider origins See Yuen from where Yuen
river source the water comes






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