Poem of the month - February 2008

Information is what they’re after in this together in their family doctor’s humdrum familiar room  A day 21 progesterone level indicative of ovulation She hopes it works      biochemistry traced colour in mist dissemination of knowledge the past’s milky trace      revealed in micoscopic densities of sperm a dividing line of 20 million/ml The letter of referral might do the trick she hears it happens      the body deciding a quick fix She’s not thinking      waiting list times she’s not thinking       INFERTILE though they’ve come to have their fortunes told to know the future   Gerrie Fellows From Window for a Small Blue Child (Carcanet, 2007) Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library

The inspiration for the poem Gerrie says: 'Window for a Small Blue Child  is a sequence of poems about infertility and fertility treatment in which the language and the images of medical technology interact with those of the body in the natural world. I had IVF before my daughter was born more than ten years ago, and always knew I’d one day write about the experience. I’ve often been concerned in my poetry with how technology changes our world and perhaps more importantly, how it changes us. It is this encounter that has interested me, as much as the sense of loss that goes with infertility. This particular poem comes from early on in the sequence, the point at which not having a baby turns into a condition, a named state - INFERTILITY. This is where we stepped from the familiar surroundings of our daily lives into the unfamiliar environment of infertility investigations and IVF and a future over which, as the last lines suggest, even high tech medicine does not have control.'

About the Poet   Window for a Small Blue Child is published by Carcanet (2007). Gerrie Fellows’ previous collections include The Duntroon Toponymy (Mariscat) and the environmental poetry and prose sequence The Powerlines (Polygon). Her poetry appears in many anthologies including Intimate Expanses: 25 Scottish Poems 1978-2002 (Carcanet/Scottish Poetry Library); Scotlands: Poets and the Nation (Carcanet/Scottish Poetry Library); Modern Scottish Women Poets (Canongate); The Hand that Sees. (Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh/Scottish Poetry Library). A New Zealander by birth, she has lived for the last 25 years in Glasgow where she runs a variety of writers’ workshops. She has been the recipient of several Scottish Arts Council bursaries and a writing fellowship.