{"id":81402,"date":"2016-10-17T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-17T11:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=81402"},"modified":"2016-10-15T16:43:24","modified_gmt":"2016-10-15T15:43:24","slug":"oonas-mum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/10\/oonas-mum\/","title":{"rendered":"Oona’s Mum"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"sumeet<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u2013 What is that philosophy book you were reading?<\/em>
\nHave you written something new? Five days<\/em>
\nI didn’t hear a word… what about your local<\/em>
\npeace group? Be gentle, do not criticise them,<\/em>
\nthey will realise one day \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

A postcard arrives, stamped from Victoria post office:
\nat the bottom it reads \u2013<\/em> Oona’s Mum \u2013<\/em> Along with it
\nanother packet; I tear brown paper and there is a thick
\nhand cut card, its edges at places narrowing like London roads
\nwhere cyclists and cars and buses converge.<\/p>\n

In the card, leaves glued from fern, Garry oak, arbutus
\nand other trees, and her writing next to these reads
\n\u2013 they are all native to the west coast \u2013<\/em>
\nlike First Nations children who were snatched from
\ntheir homes by the federal government between
\n1840 to 1990s.<\/p>\n

I write to her every week, but nine days now
\nI had nothing to speak. Her cards, her parcels always swift:
\nin three days they travel from BC to London, now in my
\npost box; opened it before climbing up the seventh floor
\nafter a crowded humid day in the city.<\/p>\n

\u2013 This is the last message I write…<\/em>
\nOff to Cumberland soon to watch<\/em>
\ndescendants of miners sing aloud, read verses<\/em>
\nand lay roses on miners’ graves. <\/em>
\nNo access to telephone or computer… <\/em>
\nno access to the outside world \u2013 <\/em><\/p>\n

Six days pass and I wonder what I will write
\nin my next letter, unopened when she switches on
\nher computer in the study room where she
\n\u2013 can see the USA from the window \u2013<\/em><\/p>\n

Perhaps I should write I have stopped doing letters:
\nwords are not noisy they don’t travel
\npast my front door, they are cheap, they are worthless,
\nthey are ignored.<\/p>\n

Spent two weeks writing letters to journalists
\nof left and centre, telling them of the epidemic in India:
\n\u201cYou report about rape but no one utters a word<\/em>
\nabout Taara who is beaten every night in Delhi<\/em>
\nby her husband and in mornings she walks her<\/em>
\ndaughter to school.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Only if my alphabets were as swift
\nas Victoria post from BC to London; only if a beaten
\nmother and a child were more important than an
\nA-list celebrity’s new born baby.<\/p>\n

I give up my indifference to words, my fingers positioned
\non keyboard, I start typing, I hammer on keys, I write:
\n\u201cEach morning I flipped the newspaper thinking of you;<\/em>
\nthere is nothing that you missed.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

__________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

This poem was longlisted for the Canterbury Festival Poet of the Year 2016 Prize.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sumeet Grover is the founder of <\/em>Global Poetry<\/a>, dedicated to creativity, human dignity, dialogue and global citizenship. He is a winner of the Portico Brotherton Open Poetry Prize 2014 and was shortlisted for the Jane Martin Poetry Prize in 2014 & 2015. He has authored two books of poetry:<\/em> House Arrest & Disobedience (2015<\/em>) and<\/em> Change (2011<\/em>). Grover is a member of the<\/em> TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment<\/a> and of the<\/em> TRANSCEND Art & Peace Network<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2013 What is that philosophy book you were reading?
\nHave you written something new? Five days
\nI didn’t hear a word… what about your local
\npeace group? Be gentle, do not criticise them,
\nthey will realise one day \u2013 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81402","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81402","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81402"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81402\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81402"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81402"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81402"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}