Tuesday Poem - The woman who walks backwards by Diane Brown

THE WOMAN WHO WALKS BACKWARDS

In my neighbourhood of bankers’ mansions

converted into halfway houses, and broken

windowed student flats, I’ve come to expect

odd subjects, the man who cries out piercingly 

at dawn, the speedy walker with Tourettes, 

the one who stalks the footpath for his next 

cigarette, and now the woman who walks 

backwards down the 200 steps, hoping 

to meet herself going forwards; a way 

to delay getting old, I’m told, but how 

she risks splinters, bare hands gripping 

the rail for dear life.

Diane Brown

I first read this poem by Diane Brown several months ago when it appeared in the New Zealand Book Council newsletter. 


Two days ago, I was standing with Diane outside her house; we were talking in the rain (as one does) at the top of the steps that feature in this poem. They were just a foot or two away from where we were standing - her long shortcut down the hill to work each day. She mentioned that her knees have been giving her gyp lately, so it's not unusual for her to have to make her descent backwards. . . 

Thanks for sharing your image-rich poem with us, Diane.

Diane Brown is a poet, novelist and memoirist, and the Creative Writing Co-ordinator at Aoraki Polytechnic in Dunedin, New Zealand. Her publications include two collections of poetry (Before The Divorce We Go To Disneyland, Tandem 1997—winner of the NZSA Best First Book of Poetry at the Montana Book Awards 1997; Learning to Lie Together, Godwit 2004), two novels (If The Tongue Fits, Tandem 1999; Eight Stages of Grace, Random 2002—a verse novel which was a finalist in the Montana Book Awards 2003), a travel memoir (Liars and Lovers, Random 2004) and a prose/poetic travel memoir, Here Comes Another Vital Moment, Godwit 2006. She is currently completing a novel, Hooked.

*

Pamela Gordon is this week's Tuesday Poem guest editor. She is the niece and executor of one of New Zealand's best known - and best loved - writers, Janet Frame. Pamela is also a poet, and a dedicated supporter of our Tuesday poetry initiative. She's chosen to post Poets by Janet this week.