Skip to content

Scottish Poetry Library

Register/Sign in
Shopping Bag Shopping Bag
Bringing people and poems together
  • Home
  • COVID-19
    • Re-Opening FAQ
  • Poetry
    • Poems
    • Poets
    • Our National Poet
    • Podcasts
    • Best Scottish Poems
    • Poetry and Mindfulness
    • Champions 2020
    • Posters
    • Publishers
  • Library
    • Become a borrower
    • Catalogue
    • Collections
    • Ask a librarian
    • Copyright enquiries
  • Learning
    • National Poetry Day 2019
    • National Poetry Day archive
    • SQA set texts
    • Learning resources
    • New to poetry?
    • Advice for poets
  • Events
    • Calendar
    • Exhibitions
    • Venue hire
    • List an event
  • Shop
    • Scotland’s Makar
    • Poetry Pamphlet Cards
    • Pocket Poets
    • Scottish Poetry
    • Help
  • About us
    • Our story
    • Our people
    • Our projects
    • Jobs
    • Our building
    • FAQs
    • Find us
  • Support us
    • Become a Friend
    • Donate
    • Easy Fundraising
  • Blog
Shopping BagShopping Bag
Ask a librarian
  • Home
  • >
  • Poetry
  • >
  • housework
Donate Donate icon Ask a Librarian Ask a Librarian icon

housework

Clearing The Loft - by Norman Kreitman

{ Poem }

Dismay is waiting behind the door,where across the floor footprints like hieroglyphschronicle the history of past defeats.Dead clothes, the skin of our former selves,still tumble from broken cases, cratessplit their sides with the books, a three-legged chair,bewildered, leans in the corner where a viper’s nestof jerseys entwines a broken lamp –all the high spume and […]

Wednesday afternoon - by Karlo Mila

{ Poem }

my father is “having fun”
/ cleaning the floor
/ he uses the plugged in sink as a bucket
/ wears rags on his feet
/ and shimmies…

’Our cries, she used to say…’ - by Vénus Khoury-Ghata

{ Poem }

Our cries, she used to say
/ would scratch the moon’s windowpanes
/ and scrape the corners of tombstones which milked the moon
/
/ My mother…

Mother - by Attila József

{ Poem }

All this last week I have been thinking
of my mother, thinking of her taking
up in her arms the creaking basket
of clothes, without pausing, up to the attic.

As the child looks on - by Saradha Soobrayen

{ Poem }

his mother pulls the linen
/ from the cord.
/ She flaps each sheet,
/ folds each vest.
/ Collars are starched,
/ skirts are dressed.
/ She is spit, she is…

A Little Nap Rap - by Christine De Luca

{ Poem }

A little nap rap
/ When I got home one evening
/ to my cosy living room
/ I found a squirrel at my table
/ and…

Eight Tentacles - by Julia Donaldson

{ Poem }

If only I had an octopus
/ I’d soon get my housework done.
/ I’d set him to work on the hoovering…

  • Newsletter signup
  • Accessibility
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
Scottish Poetry Library
5 Crichton's Close, Canongate
Edinburgh EH8 8DT
Tel: +44 (0)131 557 2876
© Scottish Poetry Library 2021.
The Scottish Poetry Library is a registered charity (No. SCO23311).
City of Edinburgh logo Green Arts Initiative logo Creative Scotland logo
By leaves we live

The Scottish Poetry Library is staffed weekdays from 10am – 2pm and is providing a limited service including postal loans and Click & Collect. For details, click COVID-19 in the menu bar above. Dismiss