Poetry by Anne Marie Moore

The following poets have given their words for calligraphers to interpret. As a courtesy, please contact the poet to ask for permission to use their poems and please acknowledge authorship of each poem used.

Do send an e-mail of your interpretation of words to the author.

[I'm sure it will be appreciated]

If there are other 'wordsmiths' who would like to add their poetry to this site, you are welcome to e-mail.

Cats Cradle

for DJM on our 40th Anniversary

When gnarled fingers knot and twirl string

round hands and thumbs,

fumbles find shape in the loose weave of childhood.

The design begins

in the twists of fabric.

These eyes caught the web of your thoughts

in that lambing shed one grey Karoo night.

Starched with good intent, we interlace,

stumble over yarns mangled in the frame.

Thread new, twinned and single,

unravel and twine, chafe and soften at the edges,

as cords knot our fringed journeys.

Skeins fray and slip as knuckles

caress the smooth cloth.

Thoughts filter this moment

heaped with rich velvet patchwork and silken wisps.

As these single threads weave together

the cat’s cradle of our life.

8 February 2009

Thoughts & Writing Tips

David and I met many years ago. Longer than half my life. Another life-time ago. We met on a Karoo farm on a bitterly cold August day. Hail banked the furrows. The sky was gloomy. But a spark was lit.

Cat’s Cradle is a game played between two people using a piece of knotted string, forming and reforming patterns.

Have you ever played it?

Look at and discuss the various descriptions used: e.g. ‘Starched with good intent’.

How would you describe the ‘cat’s cradle’ of your life?

Create a poem using another child’s game: hopscotch or skipping.

Cosmos - David Moore

 

Blushed Memory

Rivers of cosmos trail through the wheat green field

as massed heads march to silent martial music.

The swallow chorus swoops as pollen yellow beetles

drink from inner sweetness.

Amber leaves nestle in the moss and support the onslaught of rosy buds.

This memorial to a century of tears

and a hundred years of loss.

March 2002

Thoughts & Writing Tips

Cosmos can be seen all over South Africa, on the sides of the road, in fields and sometimes simply a patch in the middle of nowhere. This is the legacy of the Anglo Boer War (or British War of Aggression – depending on which flag you fly).
2002 was the centenary of the arrival of cosmos to South Africa from South America, with the fodder for the British war horses. South African patches of these beautiful flowers can be seen in the most unlikely spots – a farmer’s field, on the side of a mountain, next to a gravel road or a grave in the mountains.

When was the Anglo Boer War?

What other plant was introduced into South Africa at the same time as cosmos?

Try not to edit a poem too soon after writing.

Let it ‘sit’ for a while.

It is a good idea to bring in an ‘outside’ editor to assist with added thoughts and meaning.

Choose someone who you can trust and who will give good constructive response.

Anne-Marie Moore lives in Johannesburg in South Africa. She is a teacher, calligrapher and published author. Her love of the written word, creativity and spirituality inspires her students to discover their untapped creativity. In her free time whe works with children in need, using art and calligraphy to help them to fulfil their potential.

penfriends@iafrica.com: to contact Anne-Marie and order her poetry book.

http://www.penfriendspatter.blogspot.com/: her blog

http://www.creative-escapes.co.za/: website