This poem moves awkwardly…

This poem:

a poem in two parts by Niamh, aged 10 and Clare, aged 45

for the BASPCAN 2018 child protection congress

 

 

 

I

This poem moves awkwardly.

It lives in the sea, near the shore

where the waves crash

and poetry is swept onto the beach.

 

This poem eats slimy things.

It has one blunt tooth

and its tail is ripped by rocks.

It swims with small poems

 

and big poems and songs –

the books are far off in the ocean

which looks plain from a distance

but from the inside,

 

it’s full of life.

This poem is red, like ore.

It is small and wide

and its eyes are sapphire.

 

They look straight ahead.

I almost caught this poem.

It was on the tips of my fingers,

I felt its smooth skin.

 

Though I followed this poem

to the shore

it had gone. It had gone

and the sky was grey.

 

2.

 

This poem lives in a slow river

where it’s summer and I am seven

and the river is green

and the dark current scares me

 

it hangs in the shallows

there are pebbles

and low trees

and feet turned the colour of rust

 

in the sun through the water

and its mouth is a tiny dot

it flickers off on and on

and its eyes are invisible

 

but it sees

how the universe moves in colour

and a huge sun that simmers

and darkness I cannot describe

 

and the rocks are worlds

and the currents are storms

and my hand is a shadow

and cage

 

This poem is by Clare Shaw and her daughter Niamh which they wrote for the BASPCAN 2018 child protection congress in April.

Clare is our poet in residence for the congress, part of our exciting ‘out of the box’ programme.