I trail scorch marks in my wake as I breach each firebreak. My voracious carnassials devour every blade of grass and flower, the leaves on every shrub and tree. Once I charge, there’s no stopping me. But when you feel the biting chill of winter coming over the hill, you embrace my crackle and roar; […]
Voice
I close the cottage door with a soft click and turn onto the road that leads past cottages and bungalows. The smell of hot earth and sun-scorched hay stubble settles over the village’s fields and lanes, where wilting scarlet poppies congregate. Before the small hump-backed bridge, I turn right, feel prickles of dry grass through […]
MIND THE GAP
The image for Visual Verse Volume 9 Chapter 10 was unusual and challenging, an image by John Crozier, which really appealed to me, as I’m originally from London. We are given only one hour to produce 50-500 ekphrastic words, so I am thrilled that my poem appears on page 7. If you want to read it first, […]
Ghostly Bedfellows
I’m so pleased that I was long-listed in the Globe Soup June micro fiction competition, which had the theme of ‘cats’ and accepted fiction, non-fiction prose and poetry with a word count of up to 100 words. Ghostly Bedfellows In the grey shadows of predawn, I’m woken by companions of the past and the present, […]
Red Ox Staring
I’m still wearing my husband’s reading glasses but will be collecting a new pair of varifocals on Friday. I’ll also be getting my hair cut for a bit of air on my very hot neck – the temperature is rising! In the meantime, the image for Visual Verse Volume 9 Chapter 9 is a collaboration […]
The Quiver of Wings
A dull thud, the blue tit drops to the patio, and Anna hastens to open the French door before lazy cat George thinks a snack has dropped from heaven. She cradles the tiny, feathery body in her bare hands. No heartbeat. But a glimmer of sky is reflected in the jet of its eye. Anna’s […]
Blue Period
As in Pablo Picasso’s depressive art, the long path through a winter dark with anguish, despair and frailty is a spectrum of indigo melancholy: from blue-tinged ice, cobalt and navy to the hopefulness of aquamarine, it echoes our blind faith in the seasons. And then, suddenly, pieces of sky drop to earth in hosts of […]
Neon Days
I struggled with a poem for the April issue of Visual Verse, mainly due to my impaired eyesight after two cataract operations. I’m currently wearing reading glasses borrowed from my husband, which are the wrong prescription but do make a bit of a difference. The image in the May issue, Volume 9 Chapter 8, is […]
Persistence of Vision (a cento)
The future was a beautiful place, once. I held you that June morning when you opened your eyes; we were seeing one another after seasons of darkness. Like some watcher of the skies. I consider how my light is spent, look into my glass and view my wasting skin; vision may be just a part […]
Childhood in Monochrome
Loving grandparents were always there to house me, feed me, teach me, grandmother in charge of my care while my parents struggled daily. Now only a handful of monochrome photographs remain as tattered ghosts of the past, but my love of home, stories, poems and music still cast their light on the present. They are […]
writing in north norfolk 