This year, June is for me all about the build up to my treat of the summer... a weekend at the fabulous Wealden Literary Festival! Natural history meets book festival; the Wealden Literary Festival is looking like my perfect kind of weekend. This will be my first visit, although the event has been running for …
Downs: A Natural Heritage (World Poetry Day)
Thursday 21st March 2019 is 'World Poetry Day', so here are a few lines inspired by a love for my home county, its landscape, heritage and nature: the Sussex Downs. Downs: A Natural Heritage Bone chalk bruised beneath way-marked graze. The scent of you – woody and thyme filled, blossom haze.Flint nuggets, flat mat black …
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Coast
When I visit the coast it is almost always in the winter. I love the empty loneliness of the beach then, the way it feels as though you have miles of linear space that is just your own. It is the wildness that is most inspiring though; the white and silver flashes of gull or …
A poem for the end of July
Yesterday when I arrived at the allotment to check on things after work, a carpet of yellowed leaves coated the ground beneath my car wheels where I park. Just inside the gate, the wood of its topmost bar warmed to the touch by low sun, shards of cobnuts littered the sparse grass. Showers have recently …
Widdershins: National Poetry Day
Happy #NationalPoetryDay! 28th September is national poetry day, a celebration of a rich culture of language, imagery and expression. I find that autumn is a season steeped in poetic inspiration. In the spirit of 'here's one I made earlier', I thought today would be the perfect occasion to share this poem I wrote inspired by …