Kia ora koutou,
The following poem was inspired by some lines from my play Setting The Table (1982). Two characters talk about why they’re doing what they do (marching for women’s rights, working to keep streets safe at night, looking after victims of abuse) and one says to the other,
‘We’re setting the table, right? We might not be the ones to sit down at the table but we’ll get it ready…’
So the poem is a celebratory over the top one about the day we all sit down at the table. Its been published before and is in my memoir These Two Hands pub Makaro Press. Ann Marie Stapp quoted it in the play I wrote for the Otaki Women’s Labour Committee, and she did it again at my 90th birthday in the Barn. I thought of it over the weekend when I was going through old photos and there was a group of us who stood together on corners and shouted…this is for them…
And as we gather..
Let us thank the stranger on the train
Let us agree to smile at everyone
Let us buy one hundred books of poems
Let us pick roses and common thyme
Let us create seven chocolate desserts
Let us pour red wine into glasses
Let us dance our way to the room
Let us sing those forgotten songs
Let us celebrate this shining moment
Let us sit down at the table
Renée
