{"id":15042,"date":"2012-07-31T06:30:38","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T18:30:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=15042"},"modified":"2012-07-30T20:59:55","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T08:59:55","slug":"tuesday-poem-desert-bloom-by-ciaran-fox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/07\/31\/tuesday-poem-desert-bloom-by-ciaran-fox\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: “Desert Bloom” by Ciar\u00e1n Fox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Desert Bloom<\/strong><\/p>\n

a desert blooms in you
\nsands the colour of rust
\nrun through the surgeon\u2019s hands<\/p>\n

there are no more
\nthorns in your garden
\nbut moisture has no place to go<\/p>\n

you open your floodgates
\nbut all that comes to your
\ncupped hands, tumbling
\nlike dry petals from your strange,
\nunlooked-for rose<\/p>\n

pot-pourri tears
\nlittle pieces of paper with the words<\/p>\n

\u201ccancer\u201d<\/p>\n

…………………….<\/span>\u201cfear\u201d<\/p>\n

…………………………………….<\/span>\u201cpain\u201d<\/p>\n

a desert bloom, in you<\/p>\n

sands the colour of rust
\netch roses in your hourglass<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a9 Ciar\u00e1n Fox<\/p>\n

Reproduced here with permission.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

About the Poem: The Poet\u2019s Note<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I started writing Desert Bloom a central image of a garden in a desert and a desert in a garden was clear in my mind. I found myself looking at the page like it was a block of stone with a poem inside it, if only I could carve it out.\u00a0 It’s unusual for me to have such a strong, complete idea of the poem at the outset and I was terrified I would shatter it with ham-fisted chiselling.\u00a0 I wanted to address the very unwelcome family elephant of cancer which was once again making its presence felt in my immediate family and I wanted to do it without making it feel like ‘made for TV’ disease-of-the-week fodder.\u00a0 The particular form of this cancer was requiring a total hysterectomy and was happening so far away, amidst the red sands on the far side of Australia.\u00a0 I felt helpless to offer real support but needed to express that the implications of such a fundamental change for a woman was not lost on me as I was expecting the birth of my first child.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

About the Poet:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ciar\u00e1n Fox is a poet, writer, photographer and film maker, co-editor of Catalyst\u00a0literary arts journal and well known Christchurch MC — and in the latter capacity will be hosting “Survivor Poetry”<\/a> at the forthcoming Christchurch Writers’ Festival.\u00a0Ciar\u00e1n lives in Lyttelton with his family and has a background in youth health, community development and the arts.<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>To read the featured poem on the Tuesday Poem Hub<\/strong> and other great poems from fellow Tuesday poets from around the world, click here<\/strong><\/a> or on the Quill<\/strong> icon<\/strong> in the sidebar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Desert Bloom a desert blooms in you sands the colour of rust run through the surgeon\u2019s hands there are no more thorns in your garden but moisture has no place to go you open your floodgates but all that comes to your cupped hands, tumbling like dry petals from your strange, unlooked-for rose pot-pourri tears […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-other-writers","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15042"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15054,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15042\/revisions\/15054"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}