Huge congratulations to Rose Mary Boehm whose poem ‘We didn’t know we were poor’ emerged as IST’s ‘Pick of the Month’ for June 2016, beating the runner up by a single vote.
Rose is the author of Tangents (published in the UK in 2011). She has also been widely published in the United States and was twice winner of the monthly Goodreads competition. A new poetry collection is earmarked for US publication in 2016.
Rose lives in Peru and has asked that her National Book Token prize of £10 be sent to her granddaughter in London.
We didn’t know we were poor
Sometimes we went hungry.
Mother made dandelion salad
and stingy-nettle soup. Potatoes
and carrots in water with salt.
Mother had been on the train again
to visit farmer Ruttenberger. Left our
last silver flatware with his wife.
Brought back a big sack of rye.
Can see her still, her too large dress,
her apron, the coffee machine
between her thighs, milling.
My scary aunt with the deep voice
and a wart on her chin would send us
into the woods: ‘Don’t you go eating
the blueberries now. Bring them home,
you hear? I need them for jam making.’
There was a place near the brook
where the world smelled of woodruff
and ceps, where bluebells announced
our indelicate approach.
Getting back empty-handed, round-eyed
and honest-to-god we hadn’t found even one,
my aunt wiped blue-purple stains
from our guilty faces.
Voters’ comments included:
A true talent. One of a kind. I love all of her work.
I was immediately transported to another place and time yet the story is totally relatable and the style is engaging
It reflects the innocence of childhood and the careless years we all had back then, not understanding what was really going on around us. And not caring either. That’s what being a child is all about.
The simplicity of the story. The touching ending. The thought-provoking title.
The genuine emotion in this poem resonates with the reader.
Simplistic yet hauntingly beautiful with pathos!
Rose has led a rich and full life, and her poetry reveals the happiness, as well as the sadness, of success and failure.
She is a very talented writer that makes you feel every word she writes. Her poems stay in your mind and should. Love it.
I can visualize every scene so clearly it’s like I’ve been there.
it’s the one that most resonated with me, from nettle soup to blueberry stains, she took me with her to another time and place
Selected comments on the rest of the shortlist:
Jo Dingle, ‘Dawn’
Beautifully controlled metaphor running throughout the poem to create a really strong image, and a lovely use of “pink” as a verb.
John Greening, ‘Seven Steps’
Beautifully paced lines. Compelling story telling. Great sensory phrasing.
Geoff Mills, ‘Manners’
Superbly witty flash fiction with some great lines. “Einstein’s eyebrows rose up like a pair of ambushed seagulls.” – perfection
Colin Pink, ‘New Perch’
Simple and exquisite, like an Edmund de Waal vase, both small and as expansive as the universe. A gorgeous poem full of tenderness and vision
Hideko Sueoka, ‘Cherry Blossoms’
The way she describes the beauty of spring and cherry blossoms through the change in the character’s mind caught my heart. I empathized with the feeling the character felt when facing the grace of spring.