Live Encounters Poetry & Writing Volume Three November-December 2024
Aotearoa Poets and Writers Special Edition
The purpose of life, poems by Kit Willett.
The purpose of life
When we look back
on a life well-lived,
what do we hope to find?
Solace, that our dear beloved one
made something of themselves,
someone to applaud and thank?
Or perhaps it is a self-comfort we seek—
that when we rest at close of day,
we, too, will be remembered.
You frolicked in a field once;
I can picture you at any age,
on a summer’s day, delighting
in the breeze and birdsong
and shape of the clouds.
You swam in the ocean
and rejoiced at the salt on your skin
as it washed away your worries.
You lived in those worries;
I can see you, still,
at the dimly lit kitchen table,
brows furrowed. And you burned
when you felt the evils of the world.
And you laughed when the world turned
and showed you its good side.
When I think about a life well-lived,
a life full of joy, and rage, and worry,
I think of you, and I cry, and I cry—
and in these tears, I find
the very purpose of life,
and in these tears, I find you.
Winter
Often, in the small days of winter,
I get a terrible cold: a reminder
to drink litres of Earl Grey
and watch recordings of Mary Oliver
reading aloud. I remember the comfort
of sweatpants and the importance of rest
(lessons I am eager to forget).
I play the piano without singing
while the soup boils on the stove,
and the cats keep me company
by attempting to sleep (on my face).
I think winter must be a good time to be a cat—
though they sometimes sneeze, too—
for they sprawl languidly in front of the fire
or nest in the tossed blankets on the couch,
and they get their favourite kind of attention
when parading in after an outside visit in a storm:
a recoiling hand and an “Oh, you poor thing.”
Haiku
My pen has grown stale—
Perhaps it is time at last
for a new notebook
© Kit Willett
Kit Willett is a bisexual poet, English teacher, and executive editor of the Aotearoa poetry journal Tarot. His debut poetry collection, Dying of the Light, was published by Wipf and Stock imprint Resource Publications in 2022.