As part of week three of Poems Of The Week, we have WHAT WE CAME LOOKING FOR by Chris Hardy, a poem about ‘about memory, love, and loss.’ Hardy explained to Bell House that he, ‘…write[s] as a reaction to moments of sudden awareness, of time, the beauty and fragility of life and the world, a random memory, an overheard phrase. A few words appear and that is the beginning. I read poetry looking for the same experience.’
WHAT WE CAME LOOKING FOR
She might remember to tell you,
though she is busy
running the café.
Also she is young
and might not know
what we meant
when we told her how
we came here
and camped on the beach
before she was born.
We met fishermen,
a woman driving a bull,
the Chief of Police, children, and you
who’d once made pastries for Farouk
in Heliopolis,
and gave us coffee, water,
cakes and wine for breakfast.
We watched above the shore,
swam, picked up mail,
rubbed olive oil and vinegar
into our burnt skin, and waited for something
or nothing.
Something came –
work, daughters,
a slow accumulation of weight
to hold us in one place
and press us into shape.
Many others bought
your powdery confections,
spent enough to turn the track
into a road and line the fields with
shops, apartments and a gleaming,
arched Patisserie.
We didn’t knock to wake you
just now,
when we had to leave again.
But we told the girl our story
and if she tells you I think
you will remember us and know
what we came looking for
this time.
(‘WHAT WE CAME LOOKING FOR’ was published in ‘The Frogmore Papers’ poetry magazine and Chris’ first collection, ‘Swimming In The Deep Diamond Mine’. )