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The Small Pleasure of Folding Clothes:
After Anne Sexton’s - Consorting with the Angels.

What has changed Anne?
I am a mother, the spoons and pans are still here to anchor me to life
And the parts of life that take time and are a bore, are part of the routine of
Cooking, cleaning, washing, feeding, caring, solving problems, combing nits, cutting the grass, vacuuming the floor, feeding the pets.

Part of the joy of this manual labour is its simplicity
Its rest from the poem, the painting, the teaching
That occupies my mind and hands the rest of the time.
There is a small pleasure in folding clothes and putting them into each ones hands.
In a freshly made bed, in things ordered and put away.

God knows – you do know God
How I have struggled with the house and all it entails
How I have fought being needed by little ones
And been disappointed by rejected caresses as they grow and change.

My head and hands yearn for Paint, a pencil, making, thinking creating
Always some task asks for my attention
Before I can begin with a brush
Or note book.

Interruption, controlling temper
Fragmented thoughts
Paul asks ‘why do I do what I do not want to do and
Leave undone the good I want to do?’
Priority and duty are not the same thing.

Anne talks of angels and patriarchs
Lord these people teach us by their
Lies, murder, misdeed, betrayal, fraud and adultery
We are them, they are us.

Anne talks of Psalm 45 on your right stands the Queen in Gold of Ophir
The king shall desire your beauty… your sons shall replace your Fathers
A woman’s lot – to be parcelled up
For her king, a sacrifice
To bear, to labour in the field of wifeliness and motherhood.

Our children, the greatest gift and the greatest burden
One we accept and try to understand
The blessing and the commitment
God gives me love for my husband, He gives me love for my children
And I persevere
working towards acceptance of myself.



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