My friend Janet Lees started blogging today and immediately posted this brilliant poem for Holy Week she's just written. You can find more of Janet's prayers and poems at the back of her excellent book Word of Mouth, and also in many of Geofrey Duncan's anthologies.
The week
This is the week:the week of cheers
that turn to mocking and jeers
and then to silence
that storms out of twisted streets
to stand at crossroads
in Lhasa, Harare and Rangoon;
the half-remembered week
where guttering flames
and a few lined faces
keep this vigil, still;
the week that takes us further
than any other
and always ends in tears.
copyright: Janet Lees all rights reserved
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Hi I found a poem by Janet Lees 20 years ago called suffering woman and was trying to contact her. As I used it in my annual report and thought she might want to see how her words have travelled. I can be contacted on wozamoya@hillaids.org.za funnily enough I have been in contact with another poet Janet Lees who I found when I Googled Janet. She kindly found this reference and I think this is the Janet Lees as I found the poem in Zimbabwe 20 years ago. The poem by Janet Lees goes as follows "suffering woman.
Her story became knitted into mine
I cannot cast her off
We are there no longer
So who buy's the gloves now?
Knitting spirit
Stitch us together
Into your paramount pattern
That will not unravel through indifference
Or fray with neglect
To which each contributes all we have so that together we may live on" such beautiful words that touched my soul. Thank you Janet wherever you may be.
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