Christmas Eve saw me doing of bit of guerilla poetry, leaving a poem on the comments board in Sheffield’s Millenium Gallery in response to their The Time is Now exhibition. I wrote the poem at a Poetry Business Writing Day based in the gallery, but didn’t want to leave it on the day without having had much opportunity to edit it.
The poem is inspired by James Nares’ short film, Pendulum (images above). Thanks to the kindness of strangers, you get a glimpse of the woman in the film. She makes a very brief appearance, and I wasn’t quick enough with my camera to get a shot, but Eean Richardson captured it on his phone and very kindly emailed it to me. Given that people have so much to do at this busy time of year, I am immensely grateful to him for his help. So, Eean, I hope you and your children have had a happy and peaceful Christmas Day. Many thanks for your help with this post.
And to everyone else who has followed the blog this year, a very Merry Christmas to you all.
Julie x
Pendulum: James Nares
smiling through the aching air a woman on a swing
captured on 16 mm film flirting with time
the shadows and cracks of Lower Manhattan 1976
litter on the street digitized and looped
blowing towards me in this calm museum room
someone has written on the comments’ sheet
time is living in the moment another reads
time is the cage we push against and
time is what it will take for the country to realise its mistake
the wrecking ball swoops past textile warehouses 
skims the metaphors of decline: buckled street signs
an abandoned car the grainy image of a bird
which must be a crumpled piece of newspaper
blown on the stateless wind
not one scrap of nature here
unless you count the man behind the camera
or the woman on the swing
Julie Mellor - poet 