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Poetry

Poetry is more
It is the insistence of cold sweat
It is, put simply
the beat of my soul

Shared poetry

Love preserve us

5/13/2015

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I was among five poets asked to write a poem for the Geelong After Dark festival. Each poem was based on a different artefact from the Geelong Heritage Centre. My assigned piece was a Shepherd's smock from 1848 hand sewn by the mother of John Crook for his journey from England to Australia. He was one of the earliest settlers in the Barrabool Hills around Geelong.

That which preserves us ~

written word, resin turned amber,a photograph, a sprinkling of salt, a song, a simple shepherd's smock

Folds of time, weathered linen

sepia stained and ageing

A browning and a fraying at the edges

Imagination animates the empty sleeves

His shadows lengthen into present

Though flesh and blood have long become of dust

Can the touch of cloth translate into love

A mother dreams it so

A son borne into a land

as calloused as the palms of his hands

She weaves a love into his days

stitch by careful stitch

Fingers numb wending thread

An unforgiving fabric

This beloved toil is silent prayer

A chant her fingers sing

Repetition in the stitches

A feeling is intangible

but this... this is love made manifest

That which preserves us ~

Mothball scatterings, pervading scent of deterrent

The careful hand of generations

A wrap of tissue paper blue round treasures

deep in wardrobe recess

Bound in the knowing

That to touch a memory is something precious

Written by Kathryn Ross.        May 2015

Copyright Kathryn Ross 2015

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    Kathryn Ross
    Rossi@serenebeliever
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