Hurrah\u2014it’s Tuesday and that means a Tuesday poem.<\/p>\n
And as of today I am officially part of the Tuesday Poem Blog, initiated by NZ writer and poet Mary McCallum<\/a>, where up to 30 poets from NZ and internationally post poems (either one of their own or another poet’s) on their blogs every Tuesday. The 30 poets also take turns for selecting and posting the poems that appear on the actual Tuesday Poem Blog <\/a>site.\u00a0 I interviewed Mary about the Tuesday Poem initiative last Saturday and you can listen to the podcast here<\/a> (click on the play icon or download the mp3.)<\/p>\n Today’s poem is The Blue and White Tablecloth<\/em><\/a> by Carolyn McCurdie<\/a>, A Dunedin poet (the same Dunedin that I celebrated in my Tuesday poem last week, Rain Wild Magic.<\/a>) <\/em><\/p>\n So go the Tuesday Poem\u2014and now (rubs hands together!) time for my first “official” poem as a Tuesday poet.<\/p>\n I have decided to start with “something old” and also a poem that celebrates the tradition of women as poets.<\/p>\n The poem is “You know the place: then … ” <\/strong><\/em>by Sappho<\/strong> (6th century B.C.)<\/p>\n You know the place: then<\/p>\n Leave Crete and come to us sacred to you; incense apple branches, a young down deep sleep; in meadows scents the air. Queen! Cyprian! Sappho There is much speculation around Sappho’s life, but little is known with any historical accuracy, beyond that she lived on the Ionian island of Lesbos in the 6th century BC and was a poet of high repute. Only a very small body of her poetry remains today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Tuesday Poem, 8 June: You know the place: then by Sappho<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-59","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59","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=59"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":133,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59\/revisions\/133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/helenlowe.info\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nwaiting where the grove is
\npleasantest, by precincts<\/p>\n
\nsmokes on the altar, cold
\nstreams murmur through the<\/p>\n
\nrose thicket shades the ground
\nand quivering leaves pour<\/p>\n
\nwhere horses have grown sleek
\namong spring flowers, dill<\/p>\n
\nFill our gold cups with love
\nstirred into clear nectar.<\/p>\n
\ntranslated from the Greek by Mary Barnard<\/p>\n