Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Tuesday Poem: Savai'i


Savai'i


she steps into the garden

on slender feet

under a hat of brimming whiteness

a startling face of teak




and round her skirts

a hundred blue butterflies rise

their wings

snippets of sky 

                                               

                                              Mary McCallum

I posted this poem a year ago after the tsunami in Samoa. I have been working on another Samoa poem to put up here but I'm not quite sure its ready so I pulled this one out. The new poem is named after the other main island Upolu. Savai'i is the 'Big Island'. Both places are magnificent. Here's the full post explaining ... 


For more Tuesday Poems click on the quill in the sidebar. The hub poem is an extract from The Time of the Giants by Anne Kennedy - one of my favourite poems ever. 

6 comments:

susan t. landry said...

blue butterflies = snippets of sky.
a new and immediately perfect image. lovely!

Helen Lowe said...

I like "under a hat of brimming whiteness" ... funny how soon we forget though, isn't it, or say, "Is it only a year ago?"

Kay Cooke said...

Beautiful, clear and evocative images - a startling, creative way of describing geography.

Kathleen Jones said...

Really lovely images Mary.

Mary McCallum said...

Thanks Susan, Helen, Kath and Kay. The woman I describe is part Samoan part Italian - truly beautiful in her garden with the blue butterflies. I didn't think of it as a description of Savai'i itself, Kay, just a woman who lived on the island. But looking at it, in fact it could be! How amazing. The brimming whiteness of the light, the teak of the earth, the blue of the sea and sky, the lightness of life there - not the heavy tread of the commercial/modern world. Thanks Kay!

Pam Morrison said...

I love those fluttering snippets of sky Mary. Quite something to be with those images from your early experience - those slender planted feet, that white hat.. alongside the devastating impact of the tsunami which took everything and left nothing.