72 pages, PUR bound in UK. ISBN 978-1-909404-08-3 £7.95
Sample poems from Catching Light:
PRISONER 46664
Mandela’s cell
for eighteen years:
three paces by two,
high bar shadows
trap
on the concrete floor
his folded blanket
slop-bucket
tin plate
and mug,
a still-life.
The guide tells
of whites’ daily
pettiness,
then with pride:
This was our university,
we learned to read and write,
using secret scraps.
On his sheened cheek
a solitary tear.
Margaret Eddershaw
GOLDEN RULE
In a forgotten drawer
my father’s wooden rule,
brass-hinged to unfold
sideways and lengthways
for measuring boat timbers.
I hear the slap and click
of its closing,
before I can say ‘lifeboat’,
see it vanish
into that long pocket
on the thigh of blue overalls.
Indicator of his precision
love of numbers
a life measured
in feet and inches
business takings
cricket scores
football pools
bingo calls.
His emotions kept in check,
marked off by pencil,
held in columns,
buttoned up in cardigans,
till an outburst
a sea-squall soon past.
Now he’s gone
to talk spans and cubits
and dead-reckoning
with Noah.
Margaret Eddershaw
