How to live through this

We will make sure we get a good night’s sleep. We will eat a
decent breakfast, probably involving eggs and bacon. We will
make sure we drink enough water. We will go for a walk,
preferably in the sunshine. We will gently inhale lungsful of
air. We will try not to gulp in the lungsful of air. We will go to
the sea. We will watch the waves. We will phone our mothers.
We will phone our fathers. We will phone our friends. We will
sit on the couch with our friends. We will hold hands with our
friends while sitting on the couch. We will cry on the couch
with our friends. We will watch movies without tension –
comedies or concert movies – on the couch with our friends
while holding hands and crying. We will think about running
away and hiding. We will think about fighting, both
metaphorically and actually. We will consider bricks. We will
buy a sturdy padlock. We will lock the gate with the sturdy
padlock, even though the gate isn’t really high enough. We
will lock our doors. We will screen our calls. We will unlist our
phone numbers. We will wait. We will make appointments
with our doctors. We will make sure to eat our vegetables.
We will read comforting books before bedtime. We will make
sure our sheets are clean. We will make sure our room is aired.
We will make plans. We will talk around it and talk through it
and talk it out. We will try to be grateful. We will be grateful.
We will make sure we get a good night’s sleep.

Helen Rickerby
from How to Live, Auckland University Press, 2019

Over the coming months, Poetry Shelf Monday Poem spot will include poems that have stuck to me over time, poems that I’ve loved for all kinds of reasons. Poems that comfort or delight or challenge. Poems that strike the eye, ear or heart. This poem by Helen Rickerby resonates on so many levels, so perfect to read in these turbulent times, when a good night’s sleep can be elusive, when friendship is so important, when finding something precious is important. Something precious like this poem.

Helen Rickerby lives in a cliff-top tower in Aro Valley, Wellington. She’s the author of four collections, most recently How to Live (AUP 2019), which won the Mary and Peter Biggs Award for Poetry at the 2020 Ockham Book Awards. In 2004 she started boutique publishing company Seraph Press, which mainly published poetry. She’s having a break from that for the foreseeable future, and is focusing on her themes of the year: play and journal – which is resulting in a new poetry project. She works as a freelance editor and writer.