Authors and their Books
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Clare Crossman “The Mulberry Tree” Clare Crossman, a local author, lived in Meldreth over the last 20 years. She worked on this collection before her untimely death from cancer earlier this year. Clare wrote poetry at an early age: from 1993 a member of the new Lakeland poets in Cumbria, she was encouraged by her mentor Willian Scammell to publish her poetry. She was active in the Cambridge arts scene and undertook the teaching of poetry and creative writing for both adults and children, including at our local schools in Melbourn and Meldreth. Clare has undertaken workshops with Cambridge Arts Salon. Clare also undertook numerous collaborations with other artists, see https://waterlightproject.org.uk/, and collaborated with the musician Penni Mclaren Walker on a sequence, ‘Fensong a Ballad of the Fen’. To know more about Clare and her work go to https://clarecrossman.net/ Included below are 3 poems from the collection. Firstly the title poem: The Mulberry Tree Nothing was ever wasted: elastic bands, old envelopes, paper bags put neatly away. It was because of the war, that might come back; and so we had to eat our greens, not leave the crusts on bread pretend to like rice pudding. Jam was made from berries of the mulberry tree. Kept high on shelves in the cool basement, rusty red, almost amber, sweeter than raspberries. ‘The lovers tree’ she called it. Soft wood, gnarled and leaning, standing in the garden for years. We were allowed to climb it, imagined we’d find rolls of silk. Slept beneath it in a tepee; unafraid. We had seen the rubble. The shells of houses with no floors, the strange murals of fireplaces imprinted on high walls. But could not imagine what it was like when bombs fell from the sky. We were the future, held in photographs, bright against the day. The lucky ones, swinging on the branches of a golden age; come out of a terrible knowledge, into a lengthening shade.
