This week’s poem is by Damian Ruth. I have heard Damian read his poems at Poets to the People over several years. I always appreciated what he wrote and how he wrote it.

We became friends and shared ideas about poetry and our poems. When he read this poem
recently I was fascinated by his explanation of the poem so he has written the background
for me. Lovely to learn new things!
From South Africa to Aotearoa
Damian was born in South Africa and has been an educator of one kind or another for decades, and in New Zealand for the last 20 years.
Now home is Paekakariki
He lives in Paekakariki and lectures atMassey University. This poem is from his anthology On Edge published by mHeadworX,Wellington. 2017.
Scraped again
Palimpsestos means “scraped again”; in ancient times when parchment was expensive anddifficult to make, earlier writings would be scraped or washed off and the page overwritten.
The evidence of previous work was rarely completely eradicated. I am interested in how stories get retold and, in the retelling, become new but carry the past within them.
This is especially true of family legends like – “Do you remember when she first saw —– and just about —–?” It is also true of how we come to terms with life’s little and shattering
tragedies.
Palimpsest
By Damian Ruth
Your story trickles
down your cheeks;
the page stays blank
but watermarked.
Eventually the
watermarks will be
behind another story
the pages carry
a story that hides secrets
but lets them travel.
The story of your
untold soul sets sail across
surfaces beyond
the secret that you
hide and in the telling embed
the clues required
for exposure will
call forth the kindred spirit
to decipher it.
All will be well, all
will be well; all manner of
things will be well, there
is another page
a gain; a loss; another
meeting still to be
your story that will
one day trickle
down your cheeks.
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