Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Tulips in Black and White’ by Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

Sadness overwhelms me in this circle of cutflowers; some face me, plead for help, but if I were to cradle one tulip-heavy head in my palmlike a premature baby, would its petals (that remind me of my mother's skin when she was old) fallto the floor? Others turn away in a dried blush of shame. Just a few plump bodies flaunt sheenon velvet cloaks, yet stems stoop weary. They wait in colour-oblite ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Triple Mirrors’ by Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

After you died, Nana, I went to your room,it was dark like that place beneath the breakwaterwhere barnacles cling and children never dare hide I opened a blind, a stuck window, breeze fannedand fanned the room, light across your dressing-table, triple mirrors. Amidst perfume bottles, hairbrush, amber beads, your art deco box,walnut with inlaid mother-of-pearl; guiltilyas if invading privacy, I l ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Surely Someone’ by Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

Tenement Building (black & white photograph)Chris Kilip, Tate Britain, 2014   you view the house from across the streetpart of a terrace       it fills the framethe roof is cut off       no sky      dim light upstairs      a balconydoor      window    & ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘Orphan’s Boot’ by Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

(found in rubble beneath a church — New Norcia) Distempered walls crowd in cold at the oldschoolroom, resonant with the chant of timestables, scrape of chalk on slate; a nun mighthave leant over a child, white dust on her cuff. This afternoon, light from a slit window catchesa silver crucifix and reflects onto the domeof glass cabinet, like sunlight over water.The exhibit: a small suede boot, ... (read more)

States of Poetry 2016 - Western Australia | ‘At the house where my father was born’ by Carolyn Abbs

States of Poetry Western Australia - Series One • 22 February 2016

'It hurts to go through walls, it makes you sick,but it's necessary.' − Tomas Tranströmer I'd expected a labyrinth of small dark rooms, yetthe house was lit marigold         scooped out like a pumpkin for HalloweenFlames flickered and spat in a wide fireplace         a seaweedy stench had swept in    ... (read more)