Poem of the month - January 2009

Counting Another year since I first fought mewling into the light: and you count me by the turns of this world. Why not count me by tides, red sunsets, winters, the long web of poems I have spun or perhaps by the lovers whose presence has lit and dimmed in my grey rooms? With each flaw and track time gently creates a biography on my face, that speaks my pasts. Count me in your calendar of friendship, briefly in your diary of life. But no presents please. Give me your hand. Catriona Malan from Love Affair With Mussels (Calder Wood Press, 2008) Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

Catriona tells of the inspiration behind the poem 'I simply began to think about how we count time, and explored the idea that it could be counted by important things in our lives, or beautiful events, rather than the fluke of travelling time of our little planet.  For after all, we are not aware of the world turning except for the events of nature it causes, but we do remember certain times by the happy or sad things which were happening.  It is much like the counting of Bible times, when a period was marked by who was king - a much more memorable and pertinent method.  I would much prefer to think of a child as a child of 24 full moons than a two-year-old; and a friend as (eg) a seven-novel woman, a nine-house woman or a five-lover woman than a sixty-year-old, which tells nothing.  I would rather be known for eighty good poems than eighty years (though add that I am not eighty quite yet).'

About the poet Because her parents happened to be there at the time, Catriona Malan was born in Dartmouth, Devon. However, apart from her first few months, she has spent the rest of her life in Scotland, close to Loch Lomond. Joining her local writers’ group gave her the stimulus to write both prose and poetry. She has been published in Lines Review, Chapman, and in several anthologies. She has won several competitions run by the Scottish Association of Writers, and she has served as the President of the Helensburgh Writers’ Workshop.