The Table
(Response to a poem by Edip Cansever)
A woman full of fear came home
She put her bag on the table
Put her pen and her notebook there
She put her phone there
And the Radio Times
On the table she put all the things that were dear to her
Photos of her family and her cats
Her old striped coat
Her threadbare black jacket
Her mug with I LOVE BIRMINGHAM on it, her old life.
Her books
Picture books, biographies, poems, novels
She placed there all her losses
and regrets and yearnings
The table wobbled
She waited to see if it would hold up.
By Felicity Ferguson
October 2020
Hi Phil,
Your poem makes for such a comforting read, a scene I can picture so vividly, which makes the way you’ve played with the final lines all the more poignant. You are wise not to keep piling things on; the table will hold up. 🧡
Until I reached your signature at the end, I thought Ross had written this and my response was going to be: ‘he’s captured you so well!’
I’d never heard of Edip Cansever before thank you for introducing me to his poetry. 🙌🏾
For anyone else who is unfamiliar with The Table you can read it here:
http://www-personal.umich.edu/~rwtill/Poems/table.html
Thank you for sharing this. It is a powerful poem. The table is such a powerful, meaningful object in all our lives: holding objects, memories, enabling discussions. Just read Edip Cansever’s poem. So glad I did.
Wow! Just had some wonderful conversations about important tables in our lives and the memories they evoke. Thank you so much for the inspiration.
The original poem is in ‘How to grow your own poem’ by Kate Clanchy – well worth reading, a very humane and hands- off kind of way of getting you to believe that yes you can write poetry. I’ve always struggled with it in the past, never could make it flow , but this one rolled straight out of me with no effort and no revision. My whole life came before my eyes, no doubt something to do with Covid!
I was intrigued that you found it comforting. Poems really do speak in different ways to different people.
Had to chuckle that you thought Ross had written it. As far as I know he has never written one about me . Maybe he should!!
Thank you Nicola and Alison for your lovely comments!
I haven’t read ‘How to Grow your Own Poem. However, Kate Clanchy’s ‘Some Kids I Taught and What They Taught Me’ and ‘England Poems from a School’ are differently golden.