Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Lorna Staveley Anker’s “Bedroom on the Pavement”
Bedroom on the Pavement
Lyttelton
.
Since they widened the road,
the house every night
takes a deep breath,
holds it and swells its walls
suitably enlarged
…………..under lamplight
as it edges onto the pavement.
Warns the stray dog not to dawdle
against its bright bedroom wall,
tells after-dark strollers
to cross the road
and settles into its alter ego,
preens a little, shakes out
its cream-painted skirting.
They say, in the town,
a strange lady-writer
once lived alone in its
…………..shadowy sadness.
As the twin chimneys reach up
windslapped from the harbour,
fingers of light define
…………..roofs and walls,
pointing to a strange star hanging
unnamed over the Bridle Path.
.
© Lorna Staveley Anker, 1914 – 2000
From The Judas Tree, edited by Bernadette Hall, Canterbury University Press, 2013
Reproduced here with permission
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Over the past four years since joining the Tuesday Poem community I have featured a considerable number of other poets “of a Tuesday”, so over the next while will be refeaturing all those who have have had more than one poem posted here. Last week I posted Lorna Staveley Anker’s Ellen’s Vigil for ANZAC week; Bedroom On The Pavement is also her work and as I said when I first featured it:
“I just really like this poem, especially the way it speaks to Lyttelton-that-was — before the earthquakes which took quite a toll on this charming, steep-hilled, harbour & port-side town. Even without that though, I love the way the poem is embued with sense of place and the house has its own personality. As for that “strange lady-writer” I hope it’s her star that shines above the Bridal Path, then and now…”
About The Poet:
“Lorna Staveley Anker began her involvement with poetry in her fifties. … During her lifetime three books were published, two by her family and one through McBrearty and Associates, and her work was included in anthologies, including war anthologies and Canterbury-based publications.” — from Landfall Review Online, review by Mary Macpherson.
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