Sally Crabtree:How to build a shelf (in yourself)

  

On general demand of the readers of my blog ,and with the  very generous permission of MS Sally Crabtree,British poet,singer and performer ,I bring the original of her poem "How to build a shelf (in yourself) ",presented in my Swedish rendering below.MS Crabtree,who can be found among my friends on the FB ,lives in Cornwall,at present  among other things,works  as advicer  and creative force to a theater in London . She was a member of the British National Team of Gymnastics.She is the only international elite athlete I know who writes high-level poetry. (lg)

                                                            

1.

Just keep a stillness in you

Like the bubble of  a spirit level

When its found its straightness 

and the line can be drawn

From one corner of your being to the other

The shelf built

For you to place your life upon.

It must be straight , this shelf

Or else your life will just slide off with a slow crash

You’ll have to pick it up again ,  amazed , once more

That it is always flowers that survive

such a crash upon the floor .

2.

You pick them up , these flowers   

And notice that their

very stillness seems to dance

This is the stillness that you want

Dancing like a memory

Playing  hide and seek

In the cupboard of your mind ( Hoping that you’ll find

it but not yet 

And so it holds its breath

Keeps still ..)

3.

You find it !

And it’s a memory of childhood -  those shelves you had

That sagged like a smile

under  the weight of so much happiness

So many books

That all collapsed of course

But it was  laughter spilling out across the floor

You picked a book up with a picture on the front of a high hill that didn’t move

 And yet your eyes rolled down it to a sea that was  so deep

full of reflected sky

So high

You were dizzy with it, laughing

4.

This is the stillness that you want

That contains laughter

You’re sad the dog has smashed

You won it on the rifles  at the fair

There was no end of melancholy prizes at this place 

 Plaster of Paris ornaments

or goldfish in the bags

that always wobbled 

and were never still

You’re wondering even now

 Is it true the hooplas didn’t fit  those plinths ?

That no-one ever won a diamond watch ?

Oh never  mind you loved those dogs

And now this one’s  dissolving in the carpet

5.

You clear away , sweep  up the mess

It takes all  day

Tomorrow you must build your shelf again

And put on it the things that have survived

 The flowers with their

dancing stillness

and an invite which says RSVP 

It is not too late to reply.