{"id":16194,"date":"2012-09-25T06:30:29","date_gmt":"2012-09-24T18:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/?p=16194"},"modified":"2012-09-24T21:12:35","modified_gmt":"2012-09-24T09:12:35","slug":"tuesday-poem-sewing-the-world-by-kerrin-sharpe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/2012\/09\/25\/tuesday-poem-sewing-the-world-by-kerrin-sharpe\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday Poem: ‘sewing the world’ by Kerrin Sharpe"},"content":{"rendered":"

sewing the world<\/strong><\/p>\n

my mother\u2019s head
\nwas full of stitches
\nshe waited in the
\ndeep forest as featherstitch
\nwith other small birds<\/p>\n

here she sang rickrack<\/em> and
\nbraided herring bone rivers
\nhere she used chain stitch to
\ngrow mountains here she sat
\nweaving stitch wheel oceans
\nto roll out waves<\/p>\n

but there are white gaps
\nbetween smocking pirie street
\nand the cross-stitched church
\nwhere she married<\/p>\n

if I follow the
\nred wool down woodwood
\nstreet it appears as
\nrunning stitch in the
\nnapier earthquake<\/p>\n

her hat shops are only
\ntacked to pavements there
\nis a ladder watching
\nher needles unsure of
\nwhat she remembered<\/p>\n

the tram goes home alone<\/p>\n

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

\u00a9 Kerrin P Sharpe<\/p>\n

from<\/em>\u00a0 “Three Days In A Wishing Well” (Victoria University Press) 2012<\/p>\n

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

\u2014<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>Kerrin Sharpe’s credentials as a poet are self-evident from her bio, below, so I shall not elaborate too much, only say that I was instantly taken with the way in which this poem both cleverly and yet seamlessly stitches together the sempstress’s art — “here she sang <\/em>rickrack and<\/em> braided herring bone rivers” <\/em>— with both a physical sense of place — “smocking pirie street”<\/em> — and the more human geography of a life:<\/p>\n

“if I follow the<\/em>
\n red wool down woodwood<\/em>
\n street it appears as<\/em>
\n running stitch in the<\/em>
\n napier earthquake”<\/em><\/p>\n

And may I say, a simply stunning final line that ties off the whole:<\/p>\n

“the tram goes home alone”<\/em><\/p>\n

Needless to say, I am very much looking forward to having time to read the entire collection.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a>

Kerrin Sharpe's launch<\/p><\/div>\n

Kerrin P. Sharpe is a poet and teacher of creative writing. She completed Professor Bill Manhire’s Original Composition class at Victoria University of Wellington (1976). Over the last four years she has returned to writing and has been published widely in: Best NZ Poems 08, 09,<\/em> and 10<\/em>; Best of the Best NZ Poems<\/em>, Turbine 07, 09<\/em> and 10<\/em>, Snorkel, Bravado, Takahe, NZ Listener, Hue & Cry, JAAM, Poetry NZ, Junctures, Sport, London Grip New Poetry, Blackmail<\/em> and The Press<\/em>. She has recently been invited to contribute a selection of her poems to the Oxford Poets Anthology 2013<\/em> in England. In 2008, she was awarded the “New Zealand Post Creative Writing Teacher’s Award” from the International Institute of Modern Letters. Kerrin’s first book of poetry, three days in a wishing well<\/strong>, was recently published on 3 September 2012 by Victoria University Press.<\/p>\n

—<\/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

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sewing the world my mother\u2019s head was full of stitches she waited in the deep forest as featherstitch with other small birds here she sang rickrack and braided herring bone rivers here she used chain stitch to grow mountains here she sat weaving stitch wheel oceans to roll out waves but there are white gaps […]<\/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-16194","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\/16194","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=16194"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16194\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16215,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16194\/revisions\/16215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16194"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16194"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16194"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}