The Tuesday Poem: Refeaturing Catherine Fitchett’s “Learning Italian”
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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I am currently featuring fellow Cantabrian and Tuesday Poet, Catherine Fitchett, as part of my series re-focusing on poets whose work has posted on the blog several times over the past four years (and we’re now into the fifth, which is wonderful, but also scary in terms of just how quickly the time has gone!)
When this poem first featured on June 19, 2012, Catherine provided the following commentary:
“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.”
To find out more about Catherine and her poetry, check out her bio as part of the original post, here, or better still, visit her on her blog:
Still standing on her head
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To check out the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here or on the Quill icon in the sidebar.
Lovely to read that again Helen. I’ve got Flap! Enjoyed.
I really enjoy the four diverse poetic voices that comprise Flap.