Tuesday Poem: “Push” by David Gregory
Push
He has found the green door at last,
in a faded, jaded street.
And, slightly askew, it reflects
the slant of his memories.
Behind it, there might be a childhood,
if he could only reach the handle,
and against the glass
(the sunlight blood of stained glass roses)
there is the shadow of his father.
And the hallway builds back
into those small rooms.
In that one the faces turned
like flowers to the sun of her entrance.
That beautiful woman who spilt his love
easily as tea, and he only
the second best china.
But listen, there is his mother singing,
and a chorus of relatives rehearsing
their relatively small disagreements.
He hears his grandmother calm the dog
barking at the approach of a strange future.
How much? He asks the scrap-yard dealer.
Well, the man says,
these things don’t come cheap.
(c) David Gregory
Published in “Push” (Black Doris Press) 2008
Reproduced here with permission.
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About the Poem: The Poet’s Note
“Doors feature on the covers of all three of my collections of poetry. In using them as a motif I have also posed two questions to myself; why are they important to me and will there be a resonance for the reader? In choosing the poem from which the title of my recent collection, “Push” is drawn, this questioning is continued. I draw back from “explaining” the poem; the meaning for the reader is not necessarily the meaning for the writer. It is a delight to me when someone has drawn different inferences from the words which then revalidate the work.
Readers over a certain age may recall the ancient pop song “Green Door” where a line goes, “I don’t know what they got but they sure play it hot behind the Green Door”. The door constitutes a physical and metaphysical separation from something both desired and unknown. The song, and the poem also resound with the idea of the ”search”, where one moves forward in life, often with an increasing baggage of memory, and where the recognition of an physical element (the door) is also the recognition of a pivotal point in that life. That pivotal point may lie in the past, but can condition one’s attitude to the present. It is possible to be unaware of this pivotal point until a flash of recognition illuminates it. In this case, that point has become a thing that is pivotal in itself; that both conceals and reveals, allows and bars experience, includes and excludes, and, as the poem says, these things don’t come cheap. And have I answered my own question?”
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About the Poet:
David Gregory is a Christchurch based poet active in the promotion of New Zealand writing. He is an editor for Sudden Valley Press and a member of the Canterbury Poets Collective and has three books of poetry to his name , “Always Arriving” and “Frame of Mind”, both by Sudden Valley Press, and “Push” by Black Doris Press . His work has been published and performed locally and internationally.
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David is A Favourite Poet. I find myself envious (in an admiring way!) of lines like these –
‘Behind it, there might be a childhood,
if he can only reach the door handle. . .”
and
“He hears his grandmother calm the dog
barking at the approach of a strange future. . . ”
David’s right; these things don’t come cheap.
Thank you for posting his poem here today, Helen
xo
Yes, I am a big fan of David’s poetry as well! As Claire said, he really does have covet-able lines – ‘spilt his love easily as tea’ – fabulous! Thanks for sharing David’s work, Helen 🙂
i love this Helen especially the line ‘and he only the second best china’ – it says so much.