Monday 4 April 2022

A Knitting Poem

 


Left over wool from a ball of WYS Pheasant and Fabel Drops Grey colour 115. Hope I have enough wool for a second sock!!

A knitting poem. This poem was first published in the Cork Literary Review, way back in the day. But I have edited it a bit to take in my new passion and to update it.

In Through the Bunny- hole

 

My mother never taught me how to cable.

 

I can slip knitways and knit two together

even through back of loop.

I can pick up and knit and turn and purl and turn and slip


and pass slip stitch over.

Enough to make cuffs and turn heels.

Enough to make socks.

 

They say that every Aran pattern tells its own tale.

I see them sitting, generations of women,

clicking fluently with their fingers


of  village clearance and emigration

of where they’ve been and where they are going

while their tongues trip over new syllables.

 

My mother never taught me how to cable

She never needed to speak of village clearance

or emigration or missile strikes or nuclear threat


But what if I do?


Copyright 2022 Cathy Leonard All rights reserved

 

3 comments:

  1. Knitting socks will be very useful if we get to the missile strikes bit. Probably not much help if we get to the nuclear holocaust, though.

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  2. You are absolutely right. I changed holocaust to threat....Thank you
    dear reader...

    ReplyDelete