Knit One, Pearl One
© Rommi Smith, BBC and North-west Tonight, Artist in Residence for The Commonwealth Games 2002

Beryl Wood of Denton, Manchester
Knitting new skins for penguins in Tasmania
A Tycoon's foul play, scalped their old ones
Knit one, pearl one

Fisherman ponders the moon on empty stomach
Then hooks the barbed tails of question marks, and
Grasps how many answers must be found in the dark
Knit one, pearl one

Box number 305, headline: 'Seeking Loved One'
First date, tries to say it - but his tongue is gone
So he semaphores affection
On the runway home
Knit one, pearl one.

Composer struggling for a lullaby
Finds black and white keys in the stars and the night sky
She never stopped believing, there's always a next line
Knit one, pearl one.

Life's interpreter:
A multi-lingual magician, weaving alphabets together
Puts one language in the hat; pulls out a different colour
Knit one, pearl one.

Knitting one and pearling one:
These simple acts
Bear no hallmark, yet
Change is made and
Patterns emerge with
Bright flecks of beginnings
Only to sail out, then fade
And then return like
Small droplets of meaning
Reoccur like rain.

A fellow human being
Casts out a lifetime
Its length measures the distance of a smile
To a child, who gobbles up its meaning, before the chance is gone
Knit one, pearl one.