Works selected for the Ruthin International Arts Festival, Wales.
(28th June to 28th July 2024)
Noel’s photowork ‘Discarded Shoe’ and his accompanying poem ‘A Life Lived Elsewhere’ have been selected for inclusion in the Ruthin International Arts Festival. Centred on the theme of ‘Elsewhere’ artists and poets from over 40 countries have been invited to transform the ancient mediaeval town in North Wales with installations, film works and poetry.
A Life Lived Elsewhere
One small girl’s discarded shoe
uncovered in the dusty debris
or perhaps deliberately hidden
under the corner of the old smithy
for us to discover lifetimes later.
Misshapen by the weight of years,
a bone dry relic of stiffened leather.
Interred between foundation stones
still showing scars of crude repair,
clusters of handmade iron sprigs
scratched and splayed by years of wear
now rusting in the brittle heel and sole
or fallen from the little puncture holes.
No expert excavation made this find,
no slow meticulous inching
through some ancient settlement
or secretly buried royal hoard,
but found by Kevin on his mini-digger
clawing back the rubbled ground.
One small girl’s discarded shoe
a presence from the past,
forgotten footsteps of a life lived elsewhere
and another story we will never know,
tired of treading the sidewalks of Brooklyn
home at last from London or Glasgow.