I think this is an excellent poem and I like it just the way it is. It would
be a great poem to slip inside every cigarette packet, maybe it would get
people thinking a little more about *thin yellow fingers* and 'she used to
say *throatily* - I shall print this one off for my poetry classes, hope you
don't mind.
HH
>From: Sheenagh Pugh <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: poem
>Date: Sun, 22 Oct 2000 05:47:43 -0700 (PDT)
>
>Can folk give me some advice on this? I don't want it
>to explain, any more than it already does, what
>"Kensitas Flowers" were & am hoping it'll come through
>the context but I don't know. Also, when I tried it on
>my daughter, she assumed tha last verse was pure
>invention, that there wasn't really a card with this
>on. But there is -I have it, and the rest - and I want
>that to come over too, cos if it wasn't real it'd just
>be this cleverdick "poetic" ending which I wouldn't
>want. Dunno how it'll come through in email but it's
>meant to be in 2-line verses and in print it'd have
>italics not speech marks.
>
>
>Kensitas Flowers
>
>Each card opens to show a flower
>embroidered on a square of silk,
>
>and a brief history. “There’s education
>in them cigarette cards,” she used to say
>
>throatily. She’d ease one, between thin
>yellow fingers, out of a new packet
>
>and pass it over. I’d stroke the threads
>of moss rose, gentian, sweet-sultan
>
>and read their folklore. Romans scented
>their baths with lavender. At Christmas
>
>we’d give her lavender bathcubes,
>but they never masked the stale smoke.
>
>I still read her cards, now and then,
>getting an education. Scabious
>
>is the widow’s flower, nasturtiums glow
>phosphorescent at night, cornflowers
>
>can blunt a sickle. Here’s a pretty one:
>its white stars stand for contentment.
>
>Nicotiana, widely held sacred
>and credited with great healing powers.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>=====
>Sheenagh Pugh
>http://www.geocities.com/sheenaghpugh
>
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