Tuesday Poem: “Blue” by Catherine Fitchett
Blue
In the first week
the sea is the dark blue of the mountains
between the blooming heather and the first snowfall.
In the second week
the sea is the greyish blue of her Sunday best sateen
which she wore when they first met.
In the fifth week
there are storms. White waves crash on the deck.
Through her porthole she sees a sea as green-blue as his eyes
that caught her gaze when he asked for her hand in marriage.
In the eighth week
her child sickens.
they are becalmed in the turquoise blue of the bracelet
on her sister’s arm, waving at the dockside.
In the ninth week
the days grow shorter. At twilight
the sea is the inky blue of the words in her diary,
recording births, deaths and distance travelled.
In the last week
they bury her child. The ship is enclosed by sea and sky
the blue of the eggshell she found on the path to the byre.
Nearby an unfledged chick with staring eyes,
covered in flies.
The next week she unpacks seeds brought from home,
plants cabbages and carrots,
marigolds, poppies and nasturtiums.
The cornflower seed, she sets aside.
In summer the garden is aflame
with red, orange and yellow
but no blue
not any scrap of blue.
(c) Catherine Fitchett
Published in Flap: The Chook Book 2, (The Hen House) 2010
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About the Poem:
This is another Tuesday Poem selection from the recently released Flap: The Chook Book 2 by Christchurch poets Victoria Broome, Catherine Fitchett, Barbara McCartney and Christina Stachurski. Blue is from Catherine’s section of the anthology: as strong as eggshells. I am a great admirer of Catherine’s poetry and have liked Blue since Catherine frst read it at a Canterbury Poets’ Collective reading at Madras Cafe Bookshop a few years back.
About Catherine:
Catherine Fitchett grew up in Wellington, where she did some writing in high school but studied chemistry at university. She has had several careers as a forensic scientist/toxicologist, full time mother of five, and currently works in the accounting field. Catherine’s varied interests have included quiltmaking and genealogy as well as poetry, which she returned to writing after attending a Canterbury University summer school course with Bernadette Hall in 1999. She is now a member of the small poetry group, The Poetry Chooks, which formed shortly after. The group have two collections published, The Chook Book, and the recently released Flap, The Chook Book 2.
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Yes – lovely. I have a partiality for ‘Blue’ …
Or would that be The Blue … 😉
Thank you for introducing me to ths beautiful poem, I read it with tears in my eyes.
I agree, it is very moving and captures an aspect of women’s experience in our colonial heritage.
This is poem to come back to – very moving.
Catherine is a fine poet—I think we are going to very much enjoy her participation in the Tuesday poem blog.
The final few lines emphasize such finality. The shift that the poem makes is stunning! Thanks for posting Catherine’s poem, Helen.
Lovely to read all the comments, thank you for posting this, Helen
Catherine, it’s a great poem so all the comments are only well deserved. I feel privileged to have Blue on my blog. 🙂
Hello Helen, Catherine
This is a very moving poem. I am struck by the idea of the sea as an archive, a chronicler of story and of memory. I have always thought of ice in this way, but not so the always-in-motion sea. Your poem has shifted something. Thank you.
Thank you, Claire.