Maps by Kerry Hammerton

Maps

Kerry Hammerton

My eyes ache

for foreign horizons,

for cold sunlight,

for signs

lettered

in an alphabet

I cannot read,

for maps

of twisted streets

where I can get lost again.

From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0


The Poet:

Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poetry has been published in various South African and UK literary journals and anthologies. In her debut poetry collection These are the lies I told you, (Modjaji 2010) Kerry was described as ‘an anatomist of romantic love’ and ‘amusing, refreshing and extraordinarily entertaining’. The Weather Report (2014), her second collection, has been called ‘playful, absurd, yearning, elegiac, dark and wicked’. Kerry is currently doing an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.

www.kerryhammerton.com

Sources of previously published poems:

Kerry Hammerton: I am falling; County Kerry; and Maps from The Weather Report, 2014.

I am falling by Kerry Hammerton

I am falling

Kerry Hammerton

You must have carried scraps

of me with you, maybe from

the first time we met: a party

at your sister’s flat. Or the first

time we had sex: I don’t remember

when or where. Or the last time:

in our old bedroom, a few weeks after

I had moved out, the sheets crisp

and fresh. I think you were trying

to impress me.

Or, maybe, from our first holiday:

camping and walking in the Drakensberg.

It rained. We fought over who would read

the book I had brought.

Or from our wedding day, or our honeymoon,

or any fight we had.

Or maybe from the day I left.

And now those scraps,

the me that you knew

and all the secret names you called me,

have died with you;

and I am left holding


From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0


The Poet:

Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poetry has been published in various South African and UK literary journals and anthologies. In her debut poetry collection These are the lies I told you, (Modjaji 2010) Kerry was described as ‘an anatomist of romantic love’ and ‘amusing, refreshing and extraordinarily entertaining’. The Weather Report (2014), her second collection, has been called ‘playful, absurd, yearning, elegiac, dark and wicked’. Kerry is currently doing an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.

www.kerryhammerton.com

Sources of previously published poems:

Kerry Hammerton: I am falling; County Kerry; and Maps from The Weather Report, 2014.

County Kerry by Kerry Hammerton

County Kerry

Kerry Hammerton

I have heard that it is a place of contrasts.

Rocky cliffs and sweeping sandy bays

in the south, flatter estuary plains in the north.

A place touched by mist and criss-crossed

with narrow country lanes. Kerry holds ancient

Celtic mysteries, guards a tradition of poetry and song.

I imagine lilting voices murmuring in pubs,

and that you could fall in love here,

spend time, discover secrets here.

When I am asked how I spell my name

I always say, ‘The traditional way;

the ancient way; the Irish way’.

From: McGregor Poetry Festival 2014 Anthology

First published in 2015 by African Sun Press
in association with The McGregor Poetry Festival Committee
ISBN 978-0-620-64600-0


The Poet:

Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town, South Africa. Her poetry has been published in various South African and UK literary journals and anthologies. In her debut poetry collection These are the lies I told you, (Modjaji 2010) Kerry was described as ‘an anatomist of romantic love’ and ‘amusing, refreshing and extraordinarily entertaining’. The Weather Report (2014), her second collection, has been called ‘playful, absurd, yearning, elegiac, dark and wicked’. Kerry is currently doing an MA in Creative Writing at Rhodes University.

www.kerryhammerton.com

Sources of previously published poems:

Kerry Hammerton: I am falling; County Kerry; and Maps from The Weather Report, 2014.

What you don’t know

When I left you in the hotel lobby
ordering another coffee, the train
carried me closer and closer
to home and further away
from you – the landscape hidden
under mist and rain. We only talked
about poetry, but the clefts between
the words said more.

No, there is no going back
to say different things and mean them.

The stars will always be there
even on cloudy nights.




From: McGregor Poetry Anthology 2013

Published by African Sun Press in association with the McGregor Poetry Festival
ISBN number 978-0-620-62302-5


The Poet:

Kerry Hammerton lives in Cape Town. Her poetry has been published in various South African and British literary magazines and anthologies and in two collections.

Previously published:

Kerry Hammerton: I’d take more care from her collection These are the lies I told you, Modjaji Books 2010; and What you don’t know from her collection The Weather Report, 2014.