In My Hands Perched A Warm Knitted Thing

Published Commission for Stitching: Stories of Textile Craft in Contemporary Britain by Hannah Emery | 2023

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Hannah Emery’s thought-provoking book explores the identity of textile craft in contemporary Britain and holds compelling essays and interviews with titles such as “Is Hand-Knitting Still Sustainable?” and “Women and the Stitched Word: The Historical Pull of Embroidery”. The invitation to fill a crevice in between the chapters with a poem responding to these explorative concepts within the world of knit, stitch, and textile craft was one I took most happily.

In My Hands Perched a Warm Knitted Thing sits on page 45 and opens the ‘Wool’ chapter. I’ve also collaborated with artist and writer Gabriel Sheehan on the other supporting poems.

In My Hands Perched a Warm Knitted Thing

It beats crimson, 

fiery like its mother - 

intangible, in all senses 

still I cradle you

like a set of relations 

fluid, set in wool, undercut, kneaded, 

a wonder unknown 

but certainly touched, soft to it 

like how real intimacy

is writing on the page

I've never felt a love like this before 

pull over, I've been worn

to the power cut, 

so intricately stretched 

that I believe I have lived 

it more than once, 

shielded, blessed, 

from the sun, who only knew

of its first spin. 

eye of a needle, these words spill from

stormed with such grace, 

an impression of eternity

pinpointed to perfection,

down your arm through mine

 a set of relations.