Blog

26th July, 2024

Friday Poem – ‘H Is for Hurtle, J for July’ by Carrie Etter

Photo of sunlight streaming through green leaves, a park bench blurred out in the background

This week’s Friday Poem is ‘H Is for Hurtle, J for July’ by Carrie Etter from her collection Grief’s Alphabet.

H Is for Hurtle, J for July My July hurtles towards Janus: on the 29th, her death on an operating table four thousand miles away: on the 30th, the anniversary of her birth, but there is no cake, no candles to burn, no long contemplated amid hastily purchased presents. I said hurtle yet could also say hurdle as I spend the month leaping and stumbling at the insurmountable. Look at these skinned knees I might say to myself.As for hurt, either I will go into the garden and yank out the weeds or I will slip under a duvet and call my cats to join me. Imagine such a month, the mountaineer’s climb from single to and through double digits. I loiter in bed, but I, bride to wakefulness, I, mind rummaging toward world, I, horizontal lumbering toward vertical, I, athirst, swallowing to wet my throat, I— I hurtle through an air thick as treacle, whether in the shower soundlessly keening, whether in the market knocking a watermelon as she or searching for cobs of corn still in the husk I would peel as she set the water boiling, whether whether whether all July even sitting in a park and watching men in white play cricket I hurtle through the blank, ceaseless corridor of grief. And so much for July—I write in December. Lifelong I daughter.

More news

1st September, 2026

Guest Post: Julie Brominicks – Cader Idris Stories

17th August, 2026

Laura Wainwright shortlisted for the Laurel Prize

11th August, 2026

Guest Post: Sarah Johnson reflects on the IPA Congress 2026

10th August, 2026

Maggie Harris wins Guyana Prize for Literature Poetry Award

Related Books

This cover depicts a drawing of snow-covered branches which overlap. There is a bright red cardinal one a single branch. The text reads: Grief's Alphabet by Carrie Etter.

Grief’s Alphabet

Carrie Etter

Buy now