Poem of the month - November 2008

Pruning I dock the dead, the damaged and diseased; the gnarled and dry come tumbling from the heights until I stand  knee-deep in bits, well-pleased I’ve put a few square yards of world to rights. I clip and crop, encouraging new growth. My fingers start to ache but still I snap my Homebase secateurs. I grin as both the gleaming silver blades expose more sap. I deftly make the kindest cuts, and take the part of surgeon, Adam, God. But mend myself, I cannot. No sharp shears will make me sprout, or slow my geriatric trend. So, wrinkling, stiffening, stooping, short of breath, I spend my weekends saving plants from death. Jim C. Wilson from Paper Run (Mariscat, 2007) Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

About the Poet Jim C Wilson’s poetry and prose have been published widely for over 25 years.  He has won First Prize in several competitions (twice winning the UK section of the Scottish International Open Poetry Competition).  He was a Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow from 2001 until 2007, and has run his Poetry in Practice sessions at Edinburgh University since 2994. He is a member of Edinburgh’s Shore Poets. His three poetry collections are The Loutra Hotel (Making Waves), Cellos in Hell (Chapman) and Paper Run (Mariscat Press).  Prose works include Spalebone Days (Kettillonia) and The Happy Land (Ramsay Head). Jim lives in Gullane, East Lothian.

Inspiration for poem I wrote the poem on 24th March 2000 and it was published in The Herald on 31st of March.  I’d been reading ‘Poetry in the Making’ by Ted Hughes.  He suggested it was a good idea to concentrate on one object for five minutes.  To clear the mind, I think, prior to writing.  I looked out the window at our cotoneaster tree and all I could think was, ‘that needs pruning’.  Then the poem began to develop.  I was pleased with rhyming ‘breath’ and ‘death’ at the end as that is the thread that runs thought the poem.  A friend suggested ‘grin’ seemed a bit manic, but I think it’s appropriate in the context.