{"id":11933,"date":"2016-09-16T16:03:18","date_gmt":"2016-09-16T16:03:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=11933"},"modified":"2020-12-09T16:17:03","modified_gmt":"2020-12-09T16:17:03","slug":"eliot-norths-my-mother-visits-the-dissection-room-is-pick-of-the-month-for-august-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/eliot-norths-my-mother-visits-the-dissection-room-is-pick-of-the-month-for-august-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Eliot North’s ‘My Mother Visits the Dissection Room’ is Pick of the Month for August 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

August’s Pick of the Month comes with the wonderfully quirky title ‘My Mother Visits the Dissection Room<\/span>‘ which in itself demands that you read it. And it is clear from our voters’ response to it that the poem does not disappoint!<\/p>\n

‘My Mother Visits the Dissection Room<\/span>‘ is one of IS&T’s entries for the 2017 Forward Prizes For Poetry Best Single Poem Award.<\/a><\/p>\n

Eliot North is a doctor, educator and writer who lives and works in the North East. Commended in the National Poetry Competition 2014, she made The Crab Man<\/em> into a Filmpoem with artist and filmmaker Alastair Cook. She loves to collaborate.<\/p>\n

Eliot has asked that her \u00a310 prize be donated to the mental health charity MIND<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

My Mother Visits the Dissection Room<\/strong><\/p>\n

She said she wanted to go there.
\nSo I pulled some strings,
\nread her the rules.
\n\u201cSensible shoes?\u201d she said.
\n\u201cYes Mother. Plus clothes
\nyou don\u2019t mind ruined.
\nFixers, they don\u2019t wash out.
\nThe smell will get you,
\nbut not of death. More chemicals
\nlike wax and rubber.\u201d
\nBut my mother, being my mother
\ndidn\u2019t seem to mind.
\nWalked right up to the
\nplastic head,
\nstuck her hand inside.
\n\u201cYou won\u2019t even know
\nI\u2019m here,\u201d she said.
\nPulled on a dark-blue lab coat.
\nWatched closely
\nas I unzipped the body bag,
\nrevealed cavities and cages.
\nStood on tiptoes to peer inside,
\nscribbled in her notebook.
\nSo I placed a stool
\nthree feet away;
\nher territory and mine.
\nWhen the students filed in
\nthey looked at her,
\nthe older woman with colourful shoes.
\nWhilst I quizzed the students,
\nshe daubed her paints.
\nAt the end they crowded round her.
\nAdmired her line and
\nbrave use of colour
\nwhilst I put the organs back.
\nAs the students left
\nshe called out to them.
\n\u201cCall me Poppy!\u201d she cried.
\nThey waved from the door.
\n\u201cWeren\u2019t they interesting?
\nWhat a wonderful body,
\nall those nooks and crannies.\u201d
\nI slung the heart in a plastic bag.
\nLooked at my watch
\nbefore herding her out.
\nThen as we went to the door
\nshe turned round and said,
\n\u201cShall we say the same time next week?\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Author\u2019s Note: My mother has never actually visited the Dissection Room.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Voters comments included:<\/p>\n

Original quirky and wonderful blend of mood\/tone <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

…it’s a poem which jiggles my thoughts on what a poem is – quietly insightful, gentle, humourous and kindly observant (with a wry smile) and for the beautifully timed line ‘you won’t even know I’m here’ <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

An intriguing subject and some subtle humour. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

funny, poignant <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Witty and enjoyable read! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

Quirky perky tone. Very visual and full of action.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I can just picture this event! <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I liked it’s vivid-ness <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

The colourful character of the mum is clearly conveyed. <\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

I love the contrasting view from the mum, I love the lyrical flow and I love the meter<\/em> <\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

August’s Pick of the Month comes with the wonderfully quirky title ‘My Mother Visits the Dissection Room‘ which in itself demands that you read it. And it is clear from our voters’ response to it that the poem does not disappoint! ‘My Mother Visits the Dissection Room‘ is one of IS&T’s entries for the 2017 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[135,141],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-poetry-picks","category-prizes-and-awards"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11933"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23804,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11933\/revisions\/23804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}