Friday Fiction: Two Poems
Once Upon a Tea-time, and Maps
Here’s this week’s Friday Fiction, and it’s a special post open to all, where I share another writer’s words, rather than my own. I’d like to do more of this, so I can amplify other authors’ voices.
This time I have two poems by my friend Jeanette Abendstern. I first got to know her when she attended my WRITE! sessions in Dumfries, and I always enjoyed taking to her about creative processes. Since then I have also come to respect her compassion, wisdom and conviction, on many fronts. Whether it is discussions with her about promoting cycling and protecting green spaces, or about how we have both pulled shopping trolleys from our lovely river Nith, or in solidarity at peace vigils against the horrific genocide taking place against Palestinians (and the lies the UK, Israeli and US governments are telling about it), I have come to hold her in the highest regard. And so I’m proud to hand over a post to Jeanette and her words.
Once Upon a Tea-time
In the bread-bin
you will find
photographs
memories distilled.
Whilst in the fridge
love letters
words of passion
not entirely chilled.
Scent of strawberries
lingering.
Pantry shelves
crammed
with sugar rations
wisely saved
forever promise of jam.
Once
upon a tea-time
children
skint knees, hungry
homeward bound.
No bus fare now
to reach them
or door key
to be found.
Mist billows and birls
blurring common spaces
and hazy the gaze
of passers-by
with vacant faces.
Yet in the living room
life’s stories
with tea and shortbread
relaid.
And
in this ordinary moment
forgetful -
to feel afraid.
© Jeanette Abendstern – 2023
Maps
When is near, far
or local, remote?
Who describes?
When is upside – down
or inside – out?
Who devises?
How true are north, south,
east and west?
Who divines?
When does hub become edge
or isle, mainland?
Who defines?
Who lives within
or beyond the pale?
Who divides?
Who rules the straight
or scores the encircling lines?
Who decrees?
Who inks the spaces pink,
across the globe?
Who dictates?
Who erases
then renames the places?
Who deceives?
Marking the checkpoints
with double crosses?
Who dares?
And who defies?
For this earth embraces all,
embraces all.
© Jeanette Abendstern – 2023
Notes
Jeanette has worked for many years with people with dementia. Once upon a Teatime draws on these experiences and associated learning. She hopes it expresses the humanity, so often discounted, of people with the condition and that it will help readers empathise with their inner lives.
Maps was sparked by the description of Wigtown, by a London based BBC presenter, as being in “a remote part of Scotland”. Hold on a minute! London is in a remote part of England, if you stay in Wigtown! It brings together Jeanette’s reflections on our perceptions of the world as shaped by the maps we rarely question. Palestine was in her thoughts in a number of the examples, particularly the erased villages, encircling lines (of the Apartheid Wall) and the checkpoints, which form part of a stranglehold of Israeli control.
Some other poems recommended by Jeanette:
I Come From There (Mahmoud Darwish)
To Our Land (Mahmoud Darwish)
Don't Mention the Children (Michael Rosen)
We Teach Life, Sir (Rafeef Ziadah)
Oh Rascal Children Of Gaza (Khaled Juma)
About Jeanette Abendstern
Originally from Rochdale, Lancashire, Jeanette first visited Dumfries and Galloway 35 years ago and, through her long term partner, kept up strong connections with the region, before settling in Dumfries in 2018.
Growing up in the 1960s and 70s, the Second World War, its causes and repercussions felt very close through the memories of her beloved grandmother, a refugee from Nazi Germany.
Jeanette has always worked in social care and feels she gains more than she gives in the privilege of getting to know people, absorbing and learning from their experiences, insights and stories.
Jeanette started writing poetry in 2010. She is inspired to write through love, friendship and the need to make sense of life.
She has found inspiration, support, friendship and community through the High Street Writers, Rubble, Riot, Chaos, Brain writers, Moniaive Writers, WRITE! and Brave New Words open mic.
She stays in Dumfries with her long term partner, who offers encouragement and collaborates in some of her writing.
Poetry events and print
Jeanette contributed to Dumfries-based anthologies Rubble, Riot, Chaos, Brain 2019 and Quaranthology 2021. She is currently involved, with a small team of friends, in collating a climate change anthology entitled “Talking about the Weather”.
She took part in “Burns Re-imagined” a collaborative event between High Street Writers and The Stove in January 2020, recited a poem for Poet for the Day, on a social media platform for the Wigtown Book Festival 2020 and another for the Big Burns Brunch 2022.
She has had two poems printed in the Morning Star’s “21st Century Poetry 2021”, two in Lallans, Scots Leid Associe 2022 and one in D&G Arts Festival Summer of Cycling 2023.
The poem about maps immediately brought to mind the Upside Down Globe (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_World_Turned_Upside_Down_(sculpture)) near the London School of Economics. It is such a simple idea – looking at the world upside down, with Australia near the top – but it really does have a strong impact.