The Word Distillery

The Word Distillery

Tina Warren



Tina is a founding member of The Word Distillery. She has been invited to read on a number of occasions at The Poetry Café in Covent Garden. She is currently writing a collection of poems based upon the life of her mother, firstly in China and later in the UK. Tina’s work explores the ambiguity of identity.
Her poems are a testament to the human spirit that is able to overcome socio-political repression. Compressed into economical lines, her stanzas examine the roles of women and the dark side of domesticity. As a writer, she breaks many of the old taboos, dealing directly with the estrangement and isolation felt by those of mixed race whose hearts are torn between two cultures, though never quite belong in either. Tina is a gifted writer with a uniquely modern voice.



POEMS



Tsaap sui in Chinatown


Rubbing shoulders with sleazy Soho,
a Brylcreemed number one son rebukes a delivery man
and then grins.

Strange cans and cartons are put on shelves.
Unfamiliar items wrapped in thick packaging
are placed in a freezer.

A smell like long-time dead sprouts
assaults nostrils;
concealing untried delicacies.

Flat salt fish and hard sausages
flavoured with wine, hang
from vicious hooks.

Delicate china bowls and spoons
embedded with rice grains are wrapped
in paper with characters.

Here is a snapshot of the unknown,
fragments of a past life.
The closest I'll get to my mother's people
and ever understanding her.



Route 666

A voice keeps telling me where to go,
I don't want to listen
but it's very insistent.

An invitation to turn into the broad way,
an opening for me,
but shall I take it?

Too late
but a u turn will put me on track
its track, not my familiar chosen path.

I succumb and am sent up a dirt road
and the gently mocking voice says
"when you can, make a u turn".

And now a detour.
An exciting scenic route along a forestry path
where a cyclist dismounts to let me pass.

An hour's detour.
A forty mile detour.
Let me tell you where to go.



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