In this episode, Laura Furner talks about the poem that has been a friend to her – 'The Fury of Overshoes' by Anne Sexton.

Laura Furner is an arts producer living and working in London. A commended poet for the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award in 2012, Laura went on to edit and publish work in the University of Leeds' creative arts magazine The Scribe, and has since worked with The Poetry Society and Poet in the City.

Laura visited The Poetry Exchange at London Podcast Festival at Kings Place in 2019.

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Our thanks to the Anne Sexton Estate and Sterling Lord Literistic Agency for allowing us to share the poem with you in this way.

Laura is in conversation with The Poetry Exchange team members, Andrea Witzke-Slot and Al Snell.

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The Fury Of Overshoes

by Anne Sexton

They sit in a row

outside the kindergarten,

black, red, brown, all

with those brass buckles.

Remember when you couldn't

buckle your own

overshoe

or tie your own

overshoe

or tie your own shoe

or cut your own meat

and the tears

running down like mud

because you fell off your

tricycle?

Remember, big fish,

when you couldn't swim

and simply slipped under

like a stone frog?

The world wasn't

yours.

It belonged to

the big people.

Under your bed

sat the wolf

and he made a shadow

when cars passed by

at night.

They made you give up

your nightlight

and your teddy

and your thumb.

Oh overshoes,

don't you

remember me,

pushing you up and down

in the winter snow?

Oh thumb,

I want a drink,

it is dark,

where are the big people,

when will I get there,

taking giant steps

all day,

each day

and thinking

nothing of it?

Reproduced by permission of SLL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Copyright Linda Gray Sexton and Loring Conant, Jr. 1981.

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