Poem of the month - October 2007

Planting Crocuses with my Mother While I dug out the holes she tipped out the bulbs, little brown and papery hearts playing dead beside the granite headstone on my father’s grave. She popped the nuggets in her fingers stiffening with cold, the knuckles swollen-boned and red. Then we replaced each sod, patted back the damp October grass until it looked as if we’d never been. There should be a fine show in spring, she said. Even better the year after. We stood and stared as if to visualise the tiny yellow, white and lilac heads stretching thin green necks towards bright April skies. Then again, she laughed, rubbing her hands to make them warm, if I go soon, you’ll have to dig the whole lot up again. Magi Gibson Poem supplied courtesy of the Scottish Poetry Library From Wild Women of a Certain Age (Chapman, 2000)

The inspiration for the poem Magi says:  'My mother is the kind of Scottish woman I fear is dying out. Stoic. Hewn from granite. The poem describes exactly what happened when we went to plant crocuses at my father's grave. It reflects her wonderful attitude to death as a natural process. She is now eighty-six-the crocuses at my father's grave have been left undisturbed for the past ten years. I often write poems where other people might take a photograph. This is such a poem. It's a memory, a recording in words. My hope is that the poem conjures up a vivid image in the mind of the reader.'

Biographical note Magi Gibson has held one Royal Literary Fund and three Scottish Arts Council Creative Writing Fellowships.She has published four collections of poetry and won the Scotland on Sunday/Women 2000 Writing Prize. Her poetry appears in many anthologies and magazines, including Scottish Love Poems and Modern Scottish Women Poets (both Canongate), and The Twentieth Century Book of Scottish Poetry (Edinburgh University Press). Her third poetry collection, Wild Women of a Certain Age, published by Chapman, is now in its third print run. Her most recent collection is Graffiti in Red Lipstick. Magi is currently writing novels for young people. She lives in Glasgow with comedy writer, Ian Macpherson.