Poem 29

Written before I had children … it arose from a story a friend told me about being frightened of a Madonna And Child picture above her bed when she was small … the dog-drawing gaffe was a true one I heard from a hapless parent …

… I wrote this in 1984 while I was in Bill Manhire’s Original Composition course … I remember reading poems in class and Bill putting in a request for this one … I’d been slow to read it because I knew it was good, my other stuff needed the feedback more …

… this was a significant poem for me in terms of feeling I was growing into a more confident poetic voice … generally speaking you work and work on poems to get them to flow smoothly from beginning to end with no rhythmic or syntactic hitches – some never quite get there, others fall easily and fortuitously into their natural shape …

Getting You To Sleep

I am so used to you
grieving wholeheartedly
because I won't buy you an ice block
or exploding into grief
when I put the ears on the wrong end
of your drawing of a dog
that I find it hard to realise
you're frightened by this picture
and so you cry

no use telling you
it's only a veil
covering half the lady's face
dropping downwards to a harmless point
when you have seen it as something sharp
hanging above the baby
as if that hidden face meant
to stab it

as in a ritual
a casting out of bad dreams
I unhook the picture
and take it down
pleased
you have a problem I can solve