This is another of the highly commended poems in the People Need Nature/Young Poets Network “Ways to be Wilder” poetry competition, hosted by the Young Poets Network. We are also publishing judge Jen Hadfield’s notes on the poems.
the writer comes across a hedgehog at midnight or the hedgehog comes across a writer
Rosa Walling-Wefelmeyer (23)
little wolf in grandma’s bonnet and dress
sways at an easy pace across pavement space,
a two-step beat for four tiny feet –
but then, under sudden lamplight,
splits at a stroke, turning into
two dancers, each looking to lead:
the first is keen to effect a pause
to worm for well-earned sustenance;
the other, unsure, tightens its grip,
quickens the trot, heading from spotlight
to
scuttle… snuffle…
language falls away like
lace, the weight of human significance
breaks in mud, in darkness
Comment by Jen Hadfield:
This poem opens with an irresistible image, then unfolds like a puzzle ring. I appreciate that you allow a satisfying element of disorientation to persist. The poem has all the hallmarks of a dance with the wild: the witness agog, rapt, confused; language faltering…as if the hedgehog(s) were dancing with the writer. There may be scope to make some very delicate edits, maybe letting the poem settle into courtly (but teetering) couplets. I feel a bit of a wrench out of the voice in the last stanza. Could it end at ‘scuttle…snuffle…’?