Set Free, Poems on Freedom - Edited by Jean Sietzema-Dickson and Janette Fernando
Commended in the FAW Awards for community writing.
“Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty we are free at last!” The words of Martin Luther King resonate down the years, expressing the relief and joy that hard won freedom brings. Loss of freedom can take many forms. It can be physical, emotional, intellectual or spiritual.
This is reflected in the variety of the 60 poems, representing 41 poets. Some of them were winners in the 2003 Poetica Christi Press Poetry Competition; the remainder were selected by the editors from The Wordsmiths’ Poetry Group and other poets.
“Set Free – Poems on Freedom contains much evidence of that very freedom in its poems. Its many poets exhibit between them a freshness of vision and a brio in expression which hearten as surely as they illuminate. The poems bear witness that poetry is both a natural and an achieved art – as is life itself. All their fashioning is at the service of the liberated heart.” Peter Steele.
WONDERLAND*
(for Liza)
The pain that impelled her to the clinic
was in fact a summons
to the Madhatter’s Party without tea
or doctoring
Shrove Tuesday – any day
avoiding the necessity of Lent and abstinence
from cups of tea Each night – pancakes
and Anglican children scamper round
and round her house
And though she
never gave permission – of that I am sure
those naughty children will not
stay outside but come to dance
upon her bed
Her Walter’s refrain: Nothing’s
there Old Fruit holds no conviction – for
on every surface – handkerchiefs
both emerald and green
The Cheshire cat (smile
and all) forgets
how to vanish
Her Kindergarten mistress wrote:
... our Miss Betty makes it clear she does
not suffer fools
She laughed at fairies then
and the ones who play around her now
bring mirth and smiles and all
good things but one
There is no rest and when
others tread without due care and clutter
the air with words; the dancers shy
away and peep from cushions, out
of blinds or swim unseen
among the flowers However
on every surface – handkerchiefs
green squares the breadth
of a toenail
Fuss and fret Family
and friends – fuss and fret–
way back there
while she is off
following the white rabbit
who has thrown away time
In her search
for where she is going though no one
ever tells where that
might be
there is no space to shed tears
for those lacking dementia’s eyes
Kathryn Hamann
*This poem was the winner of the Poetica Christi Press 2003 Poetry Competition.