Poetry: The small things by Tamara von Werthern

 

The small things

 

Spider nets floating through the air, shimmering

A bird throwing out its chest and hurling its song into the blue

Sun on a window ledge, the shadows between bricks

A song about a blackbird that drifts across a garden fence

 

The bitter taste of coffee, and the warmth from the mug

Carefully stitching up some torn trousers from the back of the cupboard

Hanging up laundry, piece by piece, the cold softness of wet cloth

Putting clean plates away in a stack and feeling productive

 

Calling a friend who I haven’t properly spoken to for a while

Looking at the wind tussling some leaves outside

Putting up pictures, and watering plants

These are the things now filling my days

 

We need to give small things the space they deserve

And enjoy just being alive, every day that we can

We should sing, and play games, and tend to the things

We’ve already got, be content and give thanks

 

It’s a lot. It’s enough. For now, it’s enough

 

Tamara von Werthern is an award-winning playwright based in Hackney.

You can read more about the success of her dystopian short film, I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire, here.

Her play The White Bike, and climate change book Letters to the Earth, featuring her contribution, are available at Pages of Hackney bookshop on Lower Clapton Road, which is currently closed but still selling book tokens.