I've been thinking about my Mum this week as 26th April is her anniversary.
She died four years ago but it seems like it could have been last week - time is a strange old thing.
On Easter Sunday I discovered Elizabeth Spires and among her poems I found Like Water which is painfully moving - so straightforward and what a powerful way to describe the grieving process.
Then a book arrived this morning that I ordered last week - Sparrow Tree by Gwyneth Lewis. Mslexia has invited submissions of reviews, this was on the list, so I thought I'd have a crack at it.
Over the last four years of my mother's life we gradually lost her, as a degenerative illness impaired both her physical abilities and thinking processes.
I flicked through what seems to be a great collection by Gwyneth Lewis and this poem called out
Field Guide to Dementia
To see you is egret,
No, red kite high
On a thermal,
Holding your hand
Is wagtail, comfort.
I think some cuckoo's laid
An egg of darkness in my head.
Words have migrated,
I forget their calls.
But I still point,
Look! Dowitcher, possibly
Lapwing. Quite.
Gwyneth Lewis
from Sparrow Tree (Bloodaxe)
