Tuesday Poem: “Learning Italian” by Catherine Fitchett
Learning Italian
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(c) Catherine Fitchett
Published in Flap: the chook book 2, The Hen House, Christchurch 2010
Reproduced here with permission.
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About the Poem: The Poet’s Note
“This is one of a number of poems that have arisen out of my intensive study of my family history over the last ten years. As I pursue the details of ancestors’ lives, I often find myself wondering “what if”. If my great-grandfather hadn’t gone bankrupt he would never have come to New Zealand – then my grandparents would never have met and I wouldn’t be here. Or, if my grandfather hadn’t taught me to play chess, I wouldn’t have met my husband (I would still be here, but my children wouldn’t). The poem didn’t come together, however, until I read Elizabeth Gordon’s column in The Press one Saturday early in 2009, when she discussed words that had come into English from Italian. The description of the word “influenza” as meaning “the influence of the stars” reminded me not only of the death of my great-aunt, Harry’s wife, in the 1918 influenza epidemic, but also of the many small coincidences that make up our existence.”
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About the Poet:
Catherine Fitchett has had a varied career as forensic scientist, stay at home mother, and currently works in accounts. She has been writing poetry for the last ten to twelve years. Her poetry has been published in Takahe, The Press, online at Blackmail Press and in various anthologies, including two collections from the small Christchurch group, the Poetry Chooks. in 2011 she was highly commended in the New Zealand Poetry Society competition and earlier this year was placed third in the inaugural Poems in the Waiting Room contest.
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Love it CAtherine – family history is fascinating, isn’t it? I always remember the saying ‘it’s a wise child who knows its father’! On my father’s side of the family (Irish) there’s three generations of illegitimacy. Lovely poem.
lovely stuff
Ah this is lovely! And it reads quite a lot like short short fiction — such layering in the story of young Harry and old Harry and all the Harry’s in between…
Love it Catherine – are you going to the Hawke’s Bay Poetry Society conference in November? Terrific line-up