This week’s choice is taken from “A Year of Scottish Poems” edited by Gaby Morgan, and it is Diana Hendry’s “Hiding Places”.
Your bedroom when you shut the door
Diana Hendry (1941—)
And in the mirror see
This quite fantastic person who
You know you’re going to be.
Poem 454. Hiding Places
The world beneath the table
When no one knows you’re there
The second home that’s all your own
Underneath the stair.
Your bedroom when you shut the door
And in the mirror see
This quite fantastic person who
You know you’re going to be.
The space above the wardrobe where
Your best-kept secrets nest,
The attic that’s a hideout when
Your parent is a pest.
The hideaway inside your head
Contains a magic light.
Just switch it on and you can zap
All monsters of the night.
A person needs a hiding place
Four walls alone won’t do.
You need a corner, secret, quiet,
To grow you into you.
This poem reminds us that both children and adults sometimes need a private space away from others to find some inner peace or to reflect on things. Child or adult, it may be our own room (supposing it isn’t shared with others), a secluded cupboard or room, or even sitting under the table as a small child when everything seems enormous.
More important is to find “the hideaway inside your head”—a state of mind where you can consider people, events and things and view them objectively to get a true perspective.
I like the way Diana Hendry describes the hidey holes we might search out—“The second home that’s all your own/Underneath the stair” is rather reminiscent of the living quarters of Harry Potter, and “The hideaway inside your head” is the one place no one can intrude if you can only switch on that magic light. I like the final stanza which doesn’t restrict the need for private, personal space to children—even adults “need a corner, secret, quiet/To grow you into you”.
I have been unable to find a performance of this poem online.