Penelope Shuttle
I wrote ‘little table’ in the vicinity of grief. When my imagination fastened upon the elegant little table in my mother’s hall I realised I’d chosen a concrete focus for anticipatory grief. In the last month of my hundred-year-old Mother’s life, last September, I sought the shelter of a loved artefact imbued with deep kinship. Mum bought the little table during the war while my father was a Far Eastern prisoner of war. She had a good eye. She told me ten years ago I was to have the table. I’ve known this little table all my life. When I didn’t know how to bear anything, the little table found me a voice. But the poem is often playful, full of life. I speak as a child in places, (cobwebetty cobwebetty), to weave time into the poem. The inward nature of the poem, its prima Materia, is an essential part of the process. Also, in a poem that changed very little from my first draft, I still needed to think about where to put the line breaks, to work on the pacing of the poem, the paring back to the bone of each section, while keeping the language alive, emotions held in the service of the poem. Why does the poem conclude in Finnish? I looked at ‘little table’ in many languages and chose Finnish for its poignant sound, its magic.
LITTLE TABLE
little table
the little table is angry
the little table is no footstool
*
the science of counting tables
is easy if you have only one
said the little table
*
the little table’s thank you
the small table to thank
*
one little table
is less trouble than none
two little tables provide
harmony on the side
three little tables
are cause for alarm
those four little tables belong to god
five little tables
are one too many
six little tables are a café
*
at the end of their lives
they remembered the little table
*
the chairs
were no match
for the little table
*
love me or lose me
said the little table, going by
*
O
said the big yellow moon
what are you doing
down there all alone
my little table
my love
*
the little table
knew something was afoot
*
yet all the time
the little table was right there
like Jupiter or Mars
*
bless this table
and all the tea and cake
placed upon it
*
the little table
fell silent,
remembering
*
Mystery came
down the chimney
the little table
shook all over
dropped a vase or two
Mystery laughed
and went on her way
*
little table little table
not a cradle just a table
*
someone came in
and put the little table
over there
away from the window
making the room different
*
is the little table happy?
*
we opened our eyes
and there was the little table
*
or they got tired
of the little table
and shoved it in the shed
*
cobwebetty
cobwebetty
cobwebetty chair
why are you here
why are you there
sang the table
*
it took seven of us
to carry
the little table
out to the car
*
the question was
who was going to tell the little table
*
then a star
shone
it shone
bright as day
on the bold
and bountiful little table
o pieni pöytä!
o pieni pöytä!: little table, in Finnish