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Karen Press

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Treasure trail

Treasure trail

Treasure trail

How did you know?
I find them now

as I need them:the Neruda volume,

the Zen anthology,
the Horowitz recordings.

You laid a trail quietly
and left, left your warm gown,

left the incense wrapped in thin paper,
the matches in your pocket, still dry.

I remember the saxophone you sold
before I was born.

When I hear it now
I know I’m walking in the right direction.

I look up and see you on the horizon,
walking along it, looking for something.

© 2002, Karen Press
From: The Canary’s Songbook
Publisher: Carcanet (UK),

Karen Press

Karen Press

(South Africa, 1956)

Karen Press was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She has worked as a teacher of mathematics and English, and since 1981 has been involved with a range of progressive education projects. She has published seven collections of poetry and has also written textbooks and other education materials in the fields of mathematics, science, economics and English, as well as children’s stories, a film scri...

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Poems of Karen Press

Treasure trail

In Jakob’s house

Redistributing it

Soft

Aching

Wednesday morning in the Café Caprice

In the cradle of humankind

Close

Treasure trail

How did you know?
I find them now

as I need them:the Neruda volume,

the Zen anthology,
the Horowitz recordings.

You laid a trail quietly
and left, left your warm gown,

left the incense wrapped in thin paper,
the matches in your pocket, still dry.

I remember the saxophone you sold
before I was born.

When I hear it now
I know I’m walking in the right direction.

I look up and see you on the horizon,
walking along it, looking for something.

From: The Canary’s Songbook

Treasure trail

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