It’s World Poetry Day today, so I hope you don’t mind if I share this poem with you. I began writing it in the last few days of my nan’s life; it’s her funeral today.
My nan was in her nineties, a fiercely proud Italian and about the most headstrong of characters you could ever wish to meet. She loved unconditionally and went down fighting; a real Trojan of a woman.
I don’t know much about poetry and don’t usually write it. The opening lines just appeared in my head on my way to visit her for what I knew would be the final time – she was too ill to soldier on.
Then when I sat down to work on the poem, the words just flowed. Sometimes writing is like that. You don’t know what you want to say until the words emerge on the page. That’s part of the magic.
My nan was a natural-born storyteller and loved to be the centre of things, so I know she’d be thrilled to have her own poem, shared with the world. I can imagine her now, nodding sagely to anyone who’d listen, “my storia, on the compute.” So here it is. Continue reading “World Poetry Day – For You”
