U. A. Fanthorpe

As a writer, I always feel it's important to mention and share the material that really gets my brain going. The poem 'Growing Up' by U. A Fanthorpe has inspired me beyond words. Which is kind of ironic because every time I read it I feel compelled to write.

It's a 6 stanza poem, but I'm just going to put the last bit here.

'The gift remains
Masonic, dark. But age affords
A vocation even for wallflowers.
Called to be connoisseur, I collect,
Admire, the effortless bravura
Of other people's lives, proper and comely,
Treading the measure, shopping, chaffing,
Quarrelling, drinking, not knowing
How right they are, or how, like well-oiled bolts,
Swiftly and sweet, they slot into the grooves
Their ancestors smoothed out along the grain.'

The poem is amusing, disdaining, reflective. Generally I dislike women writing 'growing up' poems that talk about periods, bodies and relationships, but Fanthorpe covers the subject it in a light, self-depreciating way that avoids typical feminist traps. Also, for a poem that is about difficulties in conversation, about being slightly off-key or alien, the narrator communicates perfectly.
Another great thing about this poem is that nearly everyone I show it to goes, 'This poem could be about me!' (even the guys) showing that maybe everyone is 'out of step' or 'reciting the hard-learned litany/ Of cliché'.

It makes me sad that I never sent her the letter I wrote in 2008; she died May 2009. I still have it saved on my computer - I just never worked up the courage to mail it.