CONTENTS
" WARNING "
When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
But maybe I ought to practise a little now?
(For the FBI agent who, enquiring about a sister, asked "Who is in her network?")
Who is in my network
Who guides the earthworm underground,
What inspiration could invent
Who is in my network
Investigate the daisies for invasion of the lawn,
This is one of my current favourite poems. I don't know who owns copyright, as the poem was given to me as a photocopy years ago.
Jenny Joseph
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.
I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pencils and beermats and things in boxes.
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends for dinner and read the papers.
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.
Another long-time favourite, I was sent this poem by a friend, so don't know who owns copyright.
Susan Saxe
What links us to be exact?
Better to ask to understand the force
that cuts through rock the waterıs course,
and binding like to like
makes also opposites attract.
and makes the stubborn ants persist?
When wind and rain erode the land
who calls the root work to resist?
And what clandestine hand inscribed
the coded message in the seed?
Who masterminds the spiderıs web
and plans the strategy of the weed?
the infrastructure of the vine.
the grass revolt against cement,
the rebellion of the dandelion?
What force undermines the walls
to make then crack
or makes the branches of the tree
when cut grow back?
Who conceals the passages between death and birth?
Who leads the revolution of the earth?
What links us to be exact?
Better to ask to understand the force
that cuts through rock the waterıs course,
and binding like to like
makes also opposites attract.
or the ivy for trespass where it wants to grow.
Indict the sky for pouring out its rain,
contributing to the rivers overflow.
Arrest the seagull for unlawful flight,
impose a boundary to confine the sea,
demand a mountain modify its height,
dare my woman-spirit to break free.
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