Poem Six: Memorandum in Winter

Poem Six is a 14 line poem about two women of two different generations, traveling at two different speeds, meeting on a boreen (back road) in County Leitrim. I wanted the lines in the poem that are spoken by an older woman to be displayed in the appropriate "hand." I was lucky enough to have some contact with the Active Age group in Carrick-on-Shannon, where I met Sister Thomasina, age 92. Sister Thomasina lives in the retirement home the Marist Sisters, and she writes poetry herself. As she taught handwriting in the national schools when she was teaching in them, she was interested in doing the handwriting for the poem. Here's her written version of the appropriate lines in the poem. Tonight I'll photograph the version of this that is displayed on the stairs. It's "translated" into vinyl. By the way, the Carrick Active Agers waltz on Monday afternoons in the community centre.