Blog
Problems and solutions | Megan Hall
Thu, 04 September 2025
What strategy do you use when confronted with challenging tasks in your environment? Do you make lists or divide them into more manageable tasks?
If you are a poet, you might consider describing your problem using clear, evocative images until you can imagine what needs to be done to solve the problem.
Megan Hall is a poet and editor with a rare talent for shaping difficult emotions into strong, memorable poems. This month, she shared a short poem from her debut collection, Fourth Child (Modjaji, 2007), which won the Ingrid Jonker Prize in 2008.
Read the poem Megan shared and notice how she transforms what could have been an annoying practical problem into a poem about personal growth and profound change.
To begin with, read the poem aloud. You will feel that it has a fairly regular rhythm, rather like the ticking of a clock. You might also notice that the last two lines of the first two stanzas rhyme. In other words, the lines have been shaped for a very particular purpose.
From the start, it is clear that this is a poem about clutter. The poet is surrounded by relics, remnants from an earlier time. To begin with, we cannot be certain how she feels about this: Is she comforted by the way they occupy space, heaped so high and piled so deep?
In the third line, something shifts decisively. We learn that these relics are “cutting out the light, blocking the door”. However comforting, they are making it harder to move or to see clearly.
In the second stanza, the sense of discomfort deepens. The watches kept in this house are tired and old, the clothes too small. What is more, the naphtha that burns the poet’s nose is dangerously flammable. And because of the clutter, new information cannot be processed easily.
Then, in the final stanza, a solution is offered. Rather than the ticking of tired old watches, we are asked to listen to the clear, resonant ticking of life itself, insisting that “the rooms must be cleared, parcelled up, pulled into shape”. Rhyme is even more prominent here, suggesting that order has been restored to this house.
At the same time, there is considerable tension here. Notice how much longer these lines are than the ones from previous stanzas. It is as if the poem is bursting out of its seams. Are the relics still crowding the poet, or do these lines simply tell us how much work it will take to contain them? All we know is that something has shifted. Through the writing of this poem, a different way of life has already become possible.
In the next few days, write a poem in which you describe a problem you are facing. Then, suggest a solution. See if you can play with the form of the poem at the same time.
The AVBOB Poetry Competition reopened its doors for submissions on 1 August 2025. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.
If you are a poet, you might consider describing your problem using clear, evocative images until you can imagine what needs to be done to solve the problem.
Megan Hall is a poet and editor with a rare talent for shaping difficult emotions into strong, memorable poems. This month, she shared a short poem from her debut collection, Fourth Child (Modjaji, 2007), which won the Ingrid Jonker Prize in 2008.
Read the poem Megan shared and notice how she transforms what could have been an annoying practical problem into a poem about personal growth and profound change.
TICKING
A house full of relics is what I’m living in,
heaped high to the ceiling, piled deep on the floor,
cutting out the light, blocking the door.
A house full of relics -- bits of shell, stuffed heads,
tired old watches, too small clothes,
the smell of naphtha burning my nose.
But life’s ticking stronger, the ticks resonate,
the rooms must be cleared, parcelled up, pulled into shape,
the relics pushed aside into corners, onto shelves:
so they can look on our lives but talk only to themselves.
A house full of relics is what I’m living in,
heaped high to the ceiling, piled deep on the floor,
cutting out the light, blocking the door.
A house full of relics -- bits of shell, stuffed heads,
tired old watches, too small clothes,
the smell of naphtha burning my nose.
But life’s ticking stronger, the ticks resonate,
the rooms must be cleared, parcelled up, pulled into shape,
the relics pushed aside into corners, onto shelves:
so they can look on our lives but talk only to themselves.
To begin with, read the poem aloud. You will feel that it has a fairly regular rhythm, rather like the ticking of a clock. You might also notice that the last two lines of the first two stanzas rhyme. In other words, the lines have been shaped for a very particular purpose.
From the start, it is clear that this is a poem about clutter. The poet is surrounded by relics, remnants from an earlier time. To begin with, we cannot be certain how she feels about this: Is she comforted by the way they occupy space, heaped so high and piled so deep?
In the third line, something shifts decisively. We learn that these relics are “cutting out the light, blocking the door”. However comforting, they are making it harder to move or to see clearly.
In the second stanza, the sense of discomfort deepens. The watches kept in this house are tired and old, the clothes too small. What is more, the naphtha that burns the poet’s nose is dangerously flammable. And because of the clutter, new information cannot be processed easily.
Then, in the final stanza, a solution is offered. Rather than the ticking of tired old watches, we are asked to listen to the clear, resonant ticking of life itself, insisting that “the rooms must be cleared, parcelled up, pulled into shape”. Rhyme is even more prominent here, suggesting that order has been restored to this house.
At the same time, there is considerable tension here. Notice how much longer these lines are than the ones from previous stanzas. It is as if the poem is bursting out of its seams. Are the relics still crowding the poet, or do these lines simply tell us how much work it will take to contain them? All we know is that something has shifted. Through the writing of this poem, a different way of life has already become possible.
In the next few days, write a poem in which you describe a problem you are facing. Then, suggest a solution. See if you can play with the form of the poem at the same time.
The AVBOB Poetry Competition reopened its doors for submissions on 1 August 2025. Visit www.avbobpoetry.co.za and familiarise yourself with the competition rules.
