Gerda Mayer

Gerda Mayer came from Czechoslovakia, aged eleven in 1939. Has contributed to many magazines and anthologies for adults and children. Collections: Chatto & Windus, Oxford U.P., Peterloo Poets, Iron Press, etc. Monkey on the Analyst’s Couch was a PBS Recommendation.

The Inheritor

I the sophisticated primate
Have stunted fingers on my feet,
And almost I control my climate,
And Everything is what I eat.

I wrote the story of Creation
When I discovered nudity;
‘The world is yours for exploitation.’
I gave this charter unto me.

I traded in for my survival
My peaceful heart, my flealined coat;
Did down my vegetarian rival.
I have Creation by the throat.

 

          the third line refers to ‘cloud seeding’ of which there was some talk in the seventies

Gerda Mayer

Poem published:
(under its previous title The Survivor), Encounter magazine, 1978; The Knockabout Show, Chatto; Poets for the Young, Chatto & Windus; Bernini’s Cat.

Publications:
Prague Winter, (autobiographical prose vignettes, some poems), Hearing Eye, 2005;
Hoppickers’ Holiday, limited edition, The Happy Dragon Press, 2003;
Gerda Mayer Selected Poems: Bernini’s Cat, Iron Press, 1999.

address:
c/o The Society of Authors
84 Drayton Gardens
London
SW10 9SB
 
tel: Gerda Mayer, 020 8529 1983

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