Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday Poem: Facing up to it

In this city of furrows, we fall over ourselves
tripping down
Devon Street, tipping down
Bolton,
and a return trip at such
an angle that
our foreheads kiss
the pavement.

Some days, it’s not furrowed at all,
rather
a flung thing that’s caught
the wind:
a blanket,
a swag of kelp, newspaper balled
in
a good-sized fist. On

a good day, it is
all dimples,
this city. Ample, it dips
here,
and here, and here -
the harbour  (the smile )
the place we fall
in.

                        Mary McCallum


I posted this poem right at the start of the Tuesday Poem project, and I was looking at it again after a trip up Bolton Street (I took the photo on the way back down). It's a poem that suits the festive season I think - a cheerful sort of poem with a (smile) in it and dimples. And it's a grateful poem which is partly what the great festivals, like Christmas, are about. 

Although I live on the flat bit on the other side of the harbour now, I am at heart a hill dweller like the two in the photo: what you see is a younger woman (red skirt) and an elderly gentleman who was already on a lean before he hit the incline of Bolton St. 

So Happy Christmas everyone -- and may you have more good days than bad, more smiles than furrows, more poems than not in the coming year. Thank you for coming to visit my blog and the Tuesday Poem blog and I'll be back on deck here in the New Year after a time away at our place in the Wairarapa - a place of flatness and rivers, big sky, sharp blue mountains.

Do please click here for the Tuesday Poem hub and the blissful A Child's Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. In the sidebar there, more festive treats from the wonderful bunch of poets that make up TP - the community that I co-ordinate with the help of Claire Beynon in Dunedin. 


6 comments:

AJ Ponder said...

Love the Wellington aspect to this one especially the "dimples" :)

Merry Christmas and thanks for all your hard work on the Tuesday Blog this year - Looking forward to the next one. :)

Helen Rickerby said...

Tripping down Devon Street and tipping down Bolton Street are very familiar experiences to me! You've really captured it. Thanks from me also for all your Tuesday Poem coordination work this year!

Jennifer Compton said...

my forehead has kissed that pavement

Helen Lowe said...

Fun! Merry Xmas, Mary. :)

Penelope said...

Thanks for your generous offerings this year, Mary. And for this poem with its dimples and smiles. Enjoy 'the big sky' and all that's under it.

Catherine said...

Merry Christmas to you and your family. Your poem makes me a little homesick for Wellington.