Unconditional

Just you and me, and the tchck, tchck
of your hobnails, spading
stony grey buttercream
for the patio.

I love your talk of optimal ratios —
sand, water, cement,
but it’s hard to stay rapt
when the world’s a grassy bank
with worms to scream at,
and stepping-stone ants who promise
other means of construction.

If you’d wanted a boy
you never said.
Applauded my preference
for daisy chain decoration,
yum-yummed over mud pie teas.

Later, I learned
how you layered rare elements
to buttress my shaky mettle.

Now I spade up that same blend
of unconditional —
pass it back for you.

…….

…….

Kathryn Alderman was an actor on TV, Radio, Stage and Voice-over before motherhood. She won Canon Poets’ ‘Sonnet or Not’ (2012), came runner-up in Gloucestershire Writers’ Network Competitions (2012) and now co-directs the GWN competition.  Publication includes Amaryllis, Canon’s Mouth, Dear World (Frosted Fire Press, 2014), Salt on the Wind (Elephants Footprint 2015), Last Word in Art (Wilson Art Gallery/Museum 2017). Readings include: BBC Radio 4; Cheltenham Literary and Poetry Festivals; Poetry Can Bristol, Cheltenham’s Buzzwords Poetry Café; Poetry Café Refreshed and with Cheltenham Poetry Festival’s ‘Festival Players’. Kathryn and family are herded around Gloucester by enthusiastic Border collie, Isla.

Kathryn’s poem – Moving on, *for Frank – was originally included in the Special Edition. Over the holiday weekend, it met with such approval and delight from her father, that the poem now has its own feature – below – with another photograph of Frank, aged 91 years, reading the poem on Kathryn’s laptop!

………….

‘It’s never too late to become famous”

Moving On

   *for Frank

Before you go —

I give you walks through woods,
the crisp of tiny feet on leaves
in chase of squirrels,

toadstools you said were fairy rings,
how so many wild things
watched us, unseen,

your song of bunnies safe asleep
from Jack Frost and Billy Wind,
and how I should do the same.

I give your tracks in gorse,
golf ball finds,
a sudden flap of crows.

Pools, heath-land streams, and how
you could stand in the middle of it all
and not see a city anywhere.

I give you the beacon
and wary streets remembering
your boots on the beat in all weathers —

and where the family sleeps with flowers,
and voices and faces,
and digging the summer garden.

How you chopped down the old trees,
how your new Japanese Cherries blossomed,
just before you had to leave them.

……….
Kathryn Alderman was an actor before motherhood. She won Canon Poets’ ‘Sonnet or Not’ (2012), was runner-up Gloucestershire Writers’ Network Competition (2012) and now co-directs the competition  www.facebook.com/groups/GlosWriters
Publication includes Amaryllis, Canon’s Mouth, Dear World (Frosted Fire Press, 2014), Salt on the Wind(ElephantsFootprint 2015). Readings: BBC Radio 4; Cheltenham Literary and Poetry Festivals; Poetry Can Bristol, Cheltenham’s Buzzwords; Poetry Café Refreshed and with Cheltenham Poetry Festival’s ‘Festival Players’. Kathryn’s family are herded around Gloucester by enthusiastic Border collie, Isla. Her lovely Dad Frank, aged 91yrs, says being old isn’t great, but it definitely beats the alternative.

Frank Hurlbutt with Cherry Blossom