Members Poems

First Prize

COURTING MARTHA

First time I did see her alone, I did question her

About soap-making, saying it would soon be

My Mother’s Birth-Day and how she had a mind

for some soap with a scent of roses.

It were a small deceit and I blessed myself

And hoped God were not listening too hard.

Mind I come to be sorry because Martha goes on so

About wood-ash and ferns to make lye,

How it were proper strength when it floated an egg.

My head were spinning, part from remembering

And part from looking at Martha, the way she tossed

Her cap and her curls when she knew I was near.

Then I heard about the fat from cow, pig or sheep.

It were sheep at Nostell,and mixing herbs for scent

Or flower petals. Next day I looked out through casement,

Saw her by the laundry door so I slipped out. She lifted

Her apron from over her hand and there were

a small loaf of soap, pink as her lips.

  Margaret Speak

  Yorkshire.