DAY 2 (Sat 15 Oct): Margaret Kenna

Bloomsbury Festival – Day 2
Writer In Residence: Margaret Kenna

Linens and Tea (Or a Grand Day Out)

I chat to the artist
About linens and mindfulness
Children, fine embroidery
And the role of tea
In times of crisis
Like childbirth, and mortality
It’s funny that link, linens and tea
I remember the midwife
Giving me tea, with sugar,
Shouting “Where are your disposable pants, Mummy?”
I remember I wondered who she was talking to
Before I realized the term “Mummy”
(Without appropriate linen)
Now referred to me
I wander over to watch “The Old Black Door”
And hear tales about death
This makes me reflect again on mortality
More than perhaps is normal
At two o clock
On a sunny afternoon
In Bloomsbury
Then I watch another artist
Create a picture, in front of me
Such energy, colour and vitality
I am glad to be alive to see it
Though, by now, I also really need
A cup of tea
Isn’t it funny that link we have
With tea?
Its role in times of crisis
Childbirth, creation
And thoughts of mortality

Margaret went to see Linens and Mindfulness with Christina Rose Brown at Holborn House Community Centre, A Trajectory to Unsuffocation with Gwendolyn Kassenaar and Petra Haller at Dr Williams Library and the Old Black Door – Sinister Masterplan at RADA. She also went to chat to Barra at Bloomsbury Radio about her grand day out, and read “Linens and Tea” live on air.

> Back to 26 Writers In Residence 2022