Of blood and water

Long listed for the WALKING HOME writing competition run in January & February 2022

Poetry Winner

Tony Horitz reads Of Blood and Water

Of blood and water

For seventy years,
five English places
he had called home; 

but within his hybrid blood
flowed secret rivers – Vltava
Elbe, Oder, Morava
– 

names he could barely
pronounce but ingested
in childhood – those Sundays 

his father and uncle met,
and goose-fat dumplings with
sweet-vinegared cabbage 

evoked their birth-language;
and he, an uncomprehending
ghost, sensed their sadness, 

wondering if they wanted
to return home to Prague,
in search of their mother, 

lost in the Holocaust. They never did.
Years later, he stepped off
the train there, walking to find 

the city’s New Jewish Cemetery
and the fallen family gravestone
hidden beneath sprawling ivy. 

He fetched water, let it flow
like a river washing clean
a century’s legacy of dirt 

as he whispered Vltava,
Elbe, Oder, Morava
– until
his name at last appeared.


Read more from the Long List of poems and stories submitted to the WALKING HOME writing competition. Watch winning authors reading their work on the video of the Write About Walking Home showcase event that took place on Sunday 25 September 2022.

Itching to write something yourself? Submit a piece to our Shorelines project, and invite your friends to read it aloud. Join one of our creative writing workshops or keep up to date with all our competitions by signing up to our curated newsletter here.

Tony Horitz

Tony Horitz

Poet in residence

Tony Horitz has lived in East Dorset, UK, for many years, after growing up in Surrey. He’s written poetry for many years, alongside a career in community theatre, educational drama and theatre in education, recently as a freelance director of State of Pl...

3 thoughts on “Of blood and water

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Also check out

Post
From

1 Mar, 2022

Walking Event SWS22
Sound Walk Stories Sunday: ‘Write About Walking’ showcase

2022-09-25 15:30

Online

The Write About Walking showcase event introduces the shortlisted authors of the walk · listen · create / Sound Walk September writing competition, and includes readings of their poetry and prose.

Post
Walking Home shortlist published in an illustrated chapbook

11 Mar, 2022

Announcing the publication of WALKING (2022) (see feature image) ISBN 978-1-912960-95-8, the illustrated anthology of poetry and prose that includes the shortlisted pieces in the "Walking Home" writing competition. €4.99+p&p

Post
Foxy

1 Mar, 2022

Free
Walking Event
Write About Walking A/way: free creative writing workshop

2023-04-16 15:00

Online

Walking Event
Secrets of the Stour

Wimborne community Theatre and Millstream Theatre

6 - 9 Jul, 2022

Wimborne, Dorset, UK

Post
Walking Home writing competition – pick your shortlist

1 Mar, 2022

Find out which of the 90 + submissions made it to the judges' Top 24 in our Walking Home writing competition - and pick your own shortlist

Post
Encounter by Moonlight

1 Mar, 2022

Curated news
New
Immersive Media Market Skyrockets, Predicted to Hit US$178.7 Billion by 2032

28 Mar, 2024

Post
berjalan

1 Mar, 2022

Walking/photographing A...
New
empty office, Pultney St

28 Mar, 2024

Audio about walking
New
The Tim Ferriss Show Transcripts: Rolf Potts — The Vagabond’s Way, Tactics for Immersive Travel, Pilgrimages and Psychogeography, Empathy Machines, Full-Throated Love, The Slow Sense of Smell, Lessons from Thích Nhất Hạnh, Falling Upward, and More (#624) – The Blog of Author Tim Ferriss

28 Mar, 2024