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Being Sociable Again (Episode 37)

Singing as the Darkness Lifts, Episode 37

Being Sociable Again

PodBean Link for those who like to listen

 

 

This morning the air smells of roses. My mind says ‘tea roses’ and for a moment I can’t quite remember if there is such a thing.

 

I wasn’t sure I was ready to get up this morning and then I dreamt that I had caramel crispy snacks and that put a smile into my waking state and helped me open my eyes properly.

 

I also dreamt I was leaning on a pillar knitting. Having been surrounded by yarn and all things wool gathering this weekend and then starting to write a poem to capture some of the essence of a yarn show this is perhaps no surprise. I was however disappointed with the colour of yarn I had chosen so maybe I was knitting it as a gift! In case you’re curious it was a sweater in the round and it was white wool with yellow and pink.

 

I love dreams and always enjoy a little revel in the remembering as I emerge from sleep, but I also long for those nights where my head hits the pillow and I feel like I know nothing more until I wake naturally in the morning.

 

Strange sleeps this weekend because there were weird elements to the flat we paid to stay in which made it not quite the relaxing haven we were expecting! There I dreamt about putting tins of baked beans into my mum’s cupboards and woke up regularly to see what time it was.

 

Someone said recently that they can’t tell with my poems which ones might be based on real events. I rather like that! Having promised to entertain Bridie who was one of our next door vendors at Buxton I chose to share ‘She Puts on a Spring Dress the Day the Tortoise Comes out of Hibernation’ with her. This was a good choice as she too had a tortoise named Fred when she was a child. I love the tales and chatter of the people we meet when we spend our days as Kath Andrews Designs and always learn things as well as laugh a lot. For a moment on Sunday when the reply to “How did they get on?” was “They didn’t show up.” I thought the football team’s coach had broken down on the way to the match. As the conversation progressed I worked out that they hadn’t played as expected! 

 

And we got to say hello to Jo Bell in real life which was another lovely overlap of yarn and words and made me glad of my choice to always take two of my books with me to yarn shows. I love the fact that hearing a poem just once can etch it in your brain. After hearing Jo read for the first time in Manchester (in 2015) I came away with ‘Crates’, ‘Lifted’, and ‘Your Helens and my Jonathans’ echoing in my head and I love that they stayed there. They come from the collection 'Kith'.

 

This week’s photo is described by Alt Text as “A Statue in the air”. I say it is Ronnie somersaulting for joy in Darley Dale after the first day of Buxton Wool Gathering and we should have read about the ‘statue’.

 

I will leave you today with a lockdown poem and the fact that I am grateful we learned to be sociable again…

 

Invitation

 

Just as I am worrying

that I cannot read binary –

she says I will be able to see

Perseids tonight in her armpits.

 

I assure myself I can Google it later

hoping that the instructions

will be simple.

I plan to have a notebook

and pen ready.

I know that joke about

there being 10 kinds of people in the world:

those who understand binary

and those who don’t.

I tell her it would be great

to see the meteors up close,

nuzzled right in.

They don’t make your neck ache

this way, she says,

and you will be able to hear

the crackles of ancient fires –

it is all deep in there.

 

I wonder if we will ever be

sociable again after this.

How many people in the world

are hankering to see

night skies in the armpits of lovers?

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