Poetry & Clothing Project: March

Always fashionably late, it's time for the March 2012 instalment of the Poetry & Clothing project. March 2012 was Month 11 in the project that sees a Zo-made garment made for and sent to my friend Harriet, who in turn riffs a poem based on what she receives.

For those who follow the P&C project (who wouldn't?!), you may remember that February's package was a hefty one including a stripey knit top, cosy mittens AND an underwear set because February is Harriet's birth-month. Plus she always feels a bit down at that time of the year so I wanted to cheer her up with new garments. For March's creation, I needed to take things down again a notch, so created just one piece.

I know that Harriet loves to wear the batwing dress from the September instalment, plus she wants to get some grey pieces into her wardrobe, so I decided to make a garment from the same pattern as my leopard collar batwing top which would incorporate both of those elements as well as a fresh pop of colour to welcome the Spring.

The grey jersey came from a big bag of sample fabric we received from work, and I picked up the contrast yellow print cotton at the first Brighton sewing meet-up and fabric swap back in June 2011. I love how the grey elements of the quilting cotton match the grey marl of the jersey.

So, that was the trailer for the next P&C post's poem. Now onto the main feature from February's clothing package. Stripey top, mittens and underwear, how did Harriet poetically respond to those?:


February


All the symbols in place
The tea, the toast, the stack of cards
The ruffles bed clothes
A smother of rain to say
This is more than a day
(a world on all fours)
Cut to: my face in the dark
blue bicycles on a pair of knickers
the puckered fur of a pair of mittens
Cut to: dear old time, tea stains
on the pillow
Grey light rising onto scrapped stamps
an odd inky street name
a number
the perfect place
that special
despairing grace


LOVE this poem! It encapsulates both the joy and depression that the month of February routinely brings into Harriet's life for the duration.