ONE DAY

4th October 2001 was National Poetry Day in the UK.

Members of the PK List had decided to mark the occasion with spontaneous poetry which would reflect something of their part of their world at four points in the day, roughly morning, noon, evening, and night. The event turned out to be a great success with all those who were involved feeling for once a true sense of community. There were glimpses into other peoples lives, a sharing of their hopes and finally a feeling that we were all part of something far bigger than we could know.

When it was over, it wasn't quite over, because a few days later we received as a postscript a short poem from a New York poet, Colin Addiss who had been part of the list for several years. Colin was in hospital in New York after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, at the time he was writing he could not move, and had just undergone several operations on his neck and back. His sister Grace would print off the list mail and read it to him. This is his response.

 

Colin Addiss - New York, USA
I hear all the poets
in my sisters voice
their accents Bostonian
but the words are not hers
in two hours
she tramps across the world
covers a dozen time-zones
and my Saturday
becomes their Thursday
and their lives
become my life

next year I will write
next year I will join them
claim back my life

next year is
a blank page
waiting to be
a poem

Colin died two years later

Please share our day

ONE DAY