South Coast Poets Out Loud
Fresh new poetry and writing brought to you by the South Coast Writers Centre.
Season 6 features poems from 34-37 Degrees South Poetry Anthology for 2025 on the theme 'Words / No Words'.
Season 5 features poems shortlisted in the 2025 South Coast Writers Centre Awards as well as readings from Temple - the 2024 anthology of writing.
Season 3 features poets from the anthology 34-37 Degrees South - Signs 2024. Season 2 features poets shortlisted for the South Coast Writers Centre Poetry Awards 2024. Season 1 features poets from the anthology - 34-37 Degrees South - Country 2023.
All these works are brought to you by the South Coast Writers Centre celebrating 30 years of great writing in 2025 - southcoastwriters.org
South Coast Poets Out Loud
SHE - when a beloved granddaughter became a pronoun - by Jeanne Shaw
Jeanne Shaw reads her poem 'SHE - when a beloved granddaughter became a pronoun'
This poem appears in 34-37 Degrees South 2025 - An Anthology of Poetry from members of the South Coast Writers Centre.
Piano: 'Impromptu in Quarter Comma Meantone' by Kevin MacLeod on freemusicarchive.org - Creative Commons licence.
Fresh words brought to you by the South Coast Writers Centre
‘SHE’—When a beloved granddaughter became a pronoun by Jeanne Shaw
Near the end of a long and
Remarkably agreeable life
Where triumph and disaster were treated
As Kipling might have said, just the same
His youngest grandchild, Elizabeth Mary
Became a pronoun!
Was it that his time was on the wing
Was it her familiarity
Born of visiting his nursing home
Almost daily
(Even as her busy and blossoming
Young adult life beckoned elsewhere)
When her tireless tittering at his
Antiquated well-worn jokes
And savouring his endless witty sayings
Like an elixir against encroaching doom
Affirmed that life for him
If she were in it, was good
When he would ask of other family visitors
What is she doing today?
Nothing could be more evident that this granddaughter
The one who hours before his passing
Manicured his tired old fingernails
Massaged them with hand cream and tucked him into bed
That his she came to symbolise
In just one significant pronoun
His magnificently abundant life
And more poignantly
His capacity to love.