Poetry Shelf Monday Poem

Posted: Thursday Aug 22, 2024

The Ribbon-Maker by Madeleine Fenn

Poetry Shelf Monday Poem: The Ribbon-Maker by Madeleine Fenn | NZ Poetry Shelf

THE RIBBON-MAKER

Never was there a human hand that resisted the tug of ribbons,
the pastel urge to pull it all apart. The prettiness of a bow
is so much in the unravelling.

Many stitches ago, when I was a small boy,
bound to the chime of church bells, I dreamt of becoming a ribbon maker.
Silks, satins, patterns of organdies, the weave of sweet fibre.
Little else in life is so purely decorative, and even less so full of order.

I dedicated my life to the making of ribbons, in the old manner.
I strove beyond what most mortal men do. I made it my business
to tie things up and make them better, to stave off the darkness by means
of material light. How my ribbons shone in shop windows,
or strapped about the ankles of ballerinas!

Crisscrossed on the back of a corset, zigzagged through the eyelet of a boot.
Ribbons black as soot, or pink as a pelican’s beak. In my sleep, even,
I bound things up with a flourish, with relish.
My life as a ribbon-maker meant my life was full of gifts.

Still, there was some pain to it. I mentioned the pulling of all my work,
the fraying. I say this not as a complaint, but as a warning.
The ribbon-maker’s calling, though a wonderful art, is a small torment.

I tied my heart to these things, these angel-strings,
these things which are half made to come apart.

Madeleine Fenn

Madeleine (Maddie) Fenn is originally from Tairāwhiti, now living in Ōtepoti and working as a bookseller. She spent a very happy year in 2023 completing an MA in poetry at the IIML.