Poem: Homage to Walker’s Workers
Debbie Bryan studio & Shop was thrilled to host a poetry
reading by local poet Deborah Tyler-Bennett, whom was also a
writer-in-residence for the Nottingham Festival of words. If you were unable to
attend this evening, you can find a video here
Here is what Deborah had to say about her experience of the
festival;
“I really enjoyed
being Writer in Residence at Nottingham’s first Festival of Words.
Over the festival
weekend I got to read at Debbie Bryan’s wonderful shop, conduct workshops and
drop-in sessions for writers at the Newton Building, and work on poems I’d been
writing based-on images and ideas from Nottingham Trent’s Lace Archive, run by
the incredibly encouraging Amanda Briggs-Goode and team.
I’d already written
two poems for the festival, one ‘Love and Lace’ and a short poem ‘Nottingham
Shuttle’ for the festival postcard. To both I’d added words and phrases gleaned
from the archive, and these also appear in poems below. The ‘beleaguered city’
in the last poem, was inspired by a ghost story by the nineteenth-century
Scottish writer, Margaret Oliphant.”
You’ll be able to read more about Deborah’s experience of
the Nottingham Festival of Words in a later blog post, but for now we’re proud
to present Deborah’s poem “Homage to
Walker’s Workers”.
It passed through
calloused hands, delicacy free-
falling. Embroidered
wool, mosaic in imitation lily,
wide-mouthed peony,
moss, beaded-vermicelli’s
lugworm casts.
Sometimes, its
handling a kind of love,
knowing shining-girls
never saw the graphite,
pre-bleached state an
intimacy between lace
and handler.
Next seen on magazine
or mannequin,
all graft rinsed-out,
this just the way of it …
Come that photograph,
workers’ stolid forms
knee-to-dimpled-knee,
scrubbed, smiling,
women with pinned-back
bobs,
male sea of
moustaches, brilliantine.
Most ladies featuring
Mum’s Auntie Doris,
nod to fashion in
court-heeled shoes,
but all in flowered
pinnies,
un art-moderne as
brick walls …
and not a bit of lace
in sight.
We were even
lucky enough to hear about what inspired Deborah to write such a beautiful
poem;
“The Walker’s Workers poem came from an image
in a photograph of 1932, and the contrast between the pinnies and plain-dress
of the workers, and those gowns constructed from their lace and modelled by elegant
women really struck-home.”
We hope that
you thoroughly enjoyed your experience of the Nottingham Festival of words, and
Deborah’s stunning reading at Debbie Bryan Studio & Shop.
Our next
blog post will feature Deborah’s poem “Clocking-in”
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