hugging Lauren at WOMAD (1990)
I’ve spent the lock-down rewriting and severely editing works, many (most) have appeared here – they are all much shorter but still, I hope, worth reading.
Some have radically shifted perspective.
hugging Lauren at WOMAD (1990)
Lauren wandered the showground
willing herself into another time,
another place, best of all home
stroking Beefheart the cat
she lingered outside a marquee
half-dancing, half-turning
to a Sufi qawwali
her rapture was irrupted
by a vaguely-familiar face,
‘I didn’t expect to see you here’
‘me neither’
‘looks like you need a hug’
‘I effin’ do’
half-strangers embracing
a moment? a minute? an hour?
he melted into the crowd
wiping his eyes
and thinking of Beefheart
Lauren wiped hers
twenty summers after – London;
he stepped from the noisy kitchen
of a party in Richmond
into a postage stamp garden
where Lauren stood alone
mulling the world’s end
and her own…
‘I didn’t expect to see you here’
‘me neither’
‘looks like you need a hug’
‘I effin’ do’
Lauren stubbed her cigarette
spread inviting arms
they embraced
a moment? a minute? an hour?
strangers again, hugging again
back on the WOMAD riverbank,
forlorn on a carpet of festival flotsam.
© coolhermit 2023
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I always feel I have stepped into these types of poems, and I’m viewing what is happening from the inside. They are so cleverly written. Sue.
Thanks, Sue, they are (I intend) to seem as though they are from the ‘inside’ – it’s all in the often brutal editing 🙂
Rick
You can edit ir, Rik but you never lose it
The atmosphere of a delicate moment remembered so well captured
Thanks, Guaj, when I spoke to ‘Lauren’ about our hug at WOMAD she had no recollection of it at all – how funny that a brief moment was fixed in my memory but not at all in hers 🙂
Rick
It’s good to see you back on here. I kind of admire the style of your poetry it’s so solid and human.
Thanks so much, Guaj, it’s good to be back – I had been hesitant after the ructions caused by certain individuals earlier – I don’t do ugliness and controversy.
Rick
You and me both 😉
You can always see so many things in your poetry, Coolhermit. Really enjoyable.
Allen
Thanks, A.