It was a tragedy, seven years’ misfortune. And yet, the shards were beautiful, sharp edges shimmering, a dark rift spreading as the mirror cracked from side to side. A waterfall of tiny splinters tumbled to the stone flagged floor and underneath the bathroom door, tiny jewels of tears sobbed from her magnificent reflection: bound by […]
Category: Poems
Blue Ink
Blue is a memory of days at primary school: of dipping pens into inkwells, the scratch of italic nibs, and a summer sky outside the classroom window, copying a poem by Blake or some old poet on lined paper, a blue tint of words. Blue was the colour of our uniform, much darker than ink, […]
Nettles
We are not subtle, although we blend, green in the midst of green, our sting, our poison bating our green breath with not a quiver. Hiding in the green, we remain unseen, waiting pungently for a patch of skin a recipient for our histamine; we long to puncture a scarlet tattoo, stinging souvenirs. Our hairy, […]
Sharp Teeth
I grew up to the sound- track of waves all around this tiny little island where trees offer cool shade and fruit of the brightest colours the one setback was the sharks that lurked in the water and fed on my family bled it dry drop by drop until it was just me in the […]
Early Morning Visit from the Owl
In the early hours of morning, my heart swooped from birch to willow when an owl called at the window, a fluty, chilly shiver. Through the tilted slats of the blind, the honeyed amber flash of eyes and fluttering ‘You-ooh-ooh’ drew me to the frost-kissed pane, froze my breath in a cloud of ‘Oh!’ as […]
Poem
Long gone are days of turf and mud, green fields rising in mist and rain; old cords were cut and never tied again, but ours endures, a cord of blood. We have squared the fairy ring of mushrooms, magical and bathed in dew, we’ve come full circle, me and you, my changeling born in autumn […]
Cinnamon (for Adelheid)
Different café, another time, a seat by a steamy window, hot chocolate with cinnamon, and I’m sitting opposite her, the last time we met, before I left and we never saw each other again. I was naïve, excited, eager to explore, and she was so much older, teacher and mentor. She encouraged me to fly, […]
Gentle Winter Reminder
Snow has been falling for half an hour and already the garden is covered with white. Slumped by the log store, only the tip of an old sack is visible as I approach, feet firmly in my wellies, one sock creeping down to my toes. The logs are frozen to the touch, landing in the […]
Star Birth
How much gas does a mother need? Forget the air – there’s none in space. Energy and gravity played their part, pulling together at the heart of the conception, a passionate ménage à trois. A single push excruciatingly long, squeezing an interstellar nebula into a brand-new star, a twinkle in its mother’s eye, a cosmic […]
New Graffiti
Our world is alive with public declarations, territorial admonitions and artistic explorations, scribbled, scratched, stencilled and daubed, bombed and tagged on toilet walls, buildings, trains, bridges and the underground. Simple words chipped on ancient tombs, elaborate murals sprayed with paint, angry political cartoons drawn with marker, some in monochrome, others fluorescent, we leave semi-anonymous traces […]
writing in north norfolk 