22 February 1989
When she said she was cold
He bought her a huge red hot water bottle
With a fluffy cover
And no stopper
He meant well
It looked lovely to him
I’m cold, she said (shaking)
I need a stopper
Cold!
I bought you a huge red hot water bottle
With a fluffy cover
And all I hear is
No stopper
At St Mary’s College in Wellington, in addition to spending hours practising the piano, I entered a national poetry competition. “Nothing is,” I wrote, “what is cannot be and not be”. That’s nailed it, I thought, on the tram going to school. Unfortunately Sister M refused to enter my poem. Both I and the poem were a disgrace. We were shocked. She never displayed passion but, that day, she had an important message. She thought I had dumped God. I hadn’t then. I was blatantly and badly channeling Gerard Manley Hopkins. I continued to write, and you can read my poems (so far) in chronological order or you can browse the list of poems A-Z.