McCarthy - Strange fruits

Title Page STRANGE FRUITS Maria C. McCarthy Copyright Page First published in 2011 for WordAid by Cultured Llama Publishing 11 London Road Teynham, Sittingbourne ME9 9QW www.culturedllama.co.uk Digital version converted and published in 2012 by Andrews UK Limited www.andrewsuk.com Copyright 2011 Maria C. McCarthy All rights reserved The right of Maria C. McCarthy to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 No reproduction of any part of this book may take place, whether stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from Cultured Llama Publishing A percentage of the profits from the sale of this ebook go to Macmillan Cancer Support, Registered Charity Number 261017 For further information about this project and other WordAid projects, please visit www.WordAid.org.uk This book is sold subject to the conditions that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publishers prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser About the Author Maria C. McCarthy writes poetry, short fiction, reviews and memoir. She is currently working on a collection of linked short stories, As Long As It Takes , about first and second generation Irish women living in England.

Some of these stories have been published by The Frogmore Papers and on the websites of Writers Hub and Tales of the Decongested . She has also written and broadcast as a columnist for BBC Radio 4s Home Truths (as Maria Bradley). She has an MA with Distinction in Creative Writing from the University of Kent. She writes, and occasionally teaches creative writing, in a shed at the end of her garden in a village in North Kent. www.medwaymaria.co.uk Also by Maria C. McCarthy Nothing But (2007) Learning to be English (2006, 2008) Reviews On poems in Nothing But These poems ...have a freshness, depth and immediacy...

Her sequence of poems dealing with a journey to her fathers hometown in Ireland stands out in its roundedness and consistency of imagery. Alexandra Loske in The Frogmore Papers , 72, 2008 These are thoughtful and well-structured poems, with a down-to-earth voice that make subtle use of sound-patterns and line- and stanza-breaks, and some striking and memorable images. The reader has the feeling of having travelled some distance in a deceptively short and simple space. Susan Wicks On poems in Learning to Be English and Nothing But So many of these poems are sharp and moving, richly suggestive with evocative details. Moniza Alvi Dedication in memory of Karen McAndrew Maria with Karen (right) Preface Karen McAndrew had little interest in my writing. I would tell her if I was taking a poetry class, doing a reading, but I never showed her my work, or talked about books with her.

Our friendship was based on simple pleasures - cups and cups of tea, nattering about our families, mooching around the charity shops of Rochester and pub lunches. I havent written a poem for Karen, but this collection opens with Blithe spirits, which Karen would have liked. Karens blithe spirit will be wearing jeans, a brightly-coloured top with a bit of a sparkle on it and colourful jewellery, all found in charity shops. She may not bother with footwear now; she was a size 9 and had trouble finding fashionable shoes. Perhaps there is a plentiful supply of size 9s in the afterlife. The collection closes with a prose piece, Where the High Street meets Star Hill, about our last outing together.

May Karen be sitting in a cafe with an endless supply of tea, or in a pub, in good company, drinking Pernod and lemonade on ice from a tall glass. Maria C. McCarthy Foreword This is the fourth project from WordAid, a collective of poets dedicated to raising money for charity (to date, over 4000) by publishing good writing. As in all our books, the poems here have been selected not only to make a positive impact on the world but because their quality brings its own rewards. Maria McCarthy has dedicated this book to raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Support ( www.macmillan.org.uk ), the charity that helped her friend Karen McAndrew in the last weeks of her life and supported Karens family and friends as they struggled to come to terms with their loss. Maria is a poet of remarkable skill, whose work offers surprising glimpses into our 21st-century lives - the strange fruits of our civilisation or lack of it - shot through with meditations on the past and her heritage as an Irish girl, an English woman.

Whether describing a burnt-out building, its curved bones / bared like a half-carved turkey or the dream-shop where the skins of outgrown friends / hung on a rack by the door, her images and insights are always unexpected and original. In Where the High Street meets Star Hill, she relates how she and Karen used to mooch around charity shops, and Karens gift for noticing items that she would reinvent as gifts for family and friends. Marias parallel capacity to notice and reinvent the world around her in writing shines through in these pages. Macmillan Cancer Support works with cancer sufferers and their relatives and friends to improve the lives of all those affected through providing practical, medical and financial support, as well as campaigning for better cancer care. Two million people in the UK are currently living with cancer and many of our lives have been touched by it, directly or indirectly, so theres no doubt this book will make a difference. Buy it, enjoy the poems, and change lives for the better.

Vicky Wilson, WordAid.org.uk Blithe spirits Do women spirits glide ethereal in chiffon, ectoplasm-green, like in that Noel Coward film, or do they haunt as when the angels came flannelette pyjamas; half-dressed in bra and slip; safety pins clasping at too-tight trousers - or well turned out as for a viewing of the deceased? Do they hobble round in slippers, toes wrapped over toes, or does the afterlifes chiropodist pumice, balm, remould, render them to dance in six-inch high stilettos, forever bunionless? May yours be the marriage of voice and piano May yours be the marriage of voice and piano, song and accompaniment, duet and solo, sometimes soaring to top Cs, sliding to changes of key with ease. May there be light and shade to the music of your marriage: the ambient sounds of a film; the passion of opera; rock and punk and jazz funk; singer-songwriter. May you cover the best songs of others: Joni, Eva, Regina, Half Man Half Biscuit. May you work on your own songs, husband and wife, music and lyrics. poem on the marriage of my daughter Rachel Bradley to Stephen Morris, 22 January 2011 Nice people You drip into a puddle, but its fine. They get in such a muddle and you dont mind, really, stepping from the shower to the phone, because theyre so nice.

You know that itll build their confidence if you can help to lift them from this mess, that come next time theyll sort it out themselves; you have faith in them. Youve so much more than they do; how could you complain? Even as theyre on your doorstep, sobbing, interrupting the delicto youre enjoying. Its just this once. Theyve no-one else to go to, bless them, and youre sure it wont happen again. I dream of a shop filled with all the clothes Ive ever worn The shopkeeper offers the shirt I wore on my eighteenth birthday the only gift I asked for blue and black, like a lumberjacks, frayed threads, faded check, detached collar and yoke now healed. Try it on, he tempts, sleeve across breast, hand on heart.