Congratulations to Erica Jolly for her Poem of the Month for June, This Business of Learning, and to Pat Lee for her Commended Poem, I Am One.
This Business of Learning by Erica Jolly
It seems as if I have to wait till now
trying to find out how the process works.
One thing I think I know at last
is this. Probably it began unspoken
the day my father did not come home.
Was that the moment I lost it –
joy in laughter, delight, trust in love
since comfort in my childhood was gone?
Was that the day my childhood died?
Was that when I began to hate my name?
How could I be jolly? Up on that balcony
above his chemist shop how could I laugh?
He would not be there with his camera,
his Brownie, taking those photos of me
smiling up at him, feeling secure, loved.
What was I being told by that absence,
the loss of his lap, his voice, calling me Eck –
a voice I’ve had no way of hearing –
the loss of the tobacco-laden smell of him
upstairs with me after work or golf?
Will the answer come as I look back?
I hope it does. I feel the learning comes
through moments – maybe devastating,
maybe unexpected – affecting decisions,
not through school time seated at desks.
Eighty-one years on, that moment,
expecting to see him come through the door,
anticipating he would hug me first, call me Eck.
He had been away for so long it seemed.
Why was only mother coming in?
I am one by Pat Lee
I am one and one I be
that’s only one
and one is me.
I am one, not two or three
I am what I am I be what I be.
Only one, that is all
my space is one
I’m only small.
Hello, it’s only me, not two or three
I am what I am I be what I be.
Not two or three or even four
so don’t come knocking at my door
to ask me things I can’t or won’t.
I am one and one I be
not two or three and never four
just one I am, not rich or poor
and no not five and no not six
I will not play your party tricks.
I am one and one I be.
No not seven! No not eight!
sometimes I’m early
sometimes I’m late
but when I get there you will see
I be one
and one that’s me.