“Twas in another lifetime
One of toil and blood
When blackness was a virtue
The road was full of mud
I came in from the wilderness
A creature void of form
Come in she said I’ll give ya
Shelter from the storm” Bob Dylan

I’m so pleased to have launched Joyride in London in January and in Middlesborough in February 2018. It was a wonderful milestone and a moving adventure.

We have such ‘little lives’ – and to be able to connect, reach out to each other  is all I can ask for as an artist. If anything I have written has given you solace, touched you in any way, then Namaste, and my heart to you.

I spent January proof reading and re-ordering and adding bits to the newly named Flood.

I hope you like it. It is published by Cultured Llama – ETA end of March. I hope to add details of the Launch soon. My first full collection.

It tells the story of lives intertwining, flowing together in a unified river, coursing in a chaotic struggle for life, breath and union.

A Preview from Flood:

The Escape

The trick was sewn into your mouth,

commissioned by a mirror. You complained

about Stockholm Syndrome as I handed you

means of getting free. You suspected

the tricks were faked. You wanted to fly

the plane, not just sit next to emergency exits.

 

‘Let me fly you to Uluru, land on sacred rock,

take in the landscape, we are always trying to escape.’

You pour your heart out, always on the run.

‘Perhaps I’ll be a wild man or a card-sharp on Coney Island.

How about a trip to the Bombay slums?’ You ask,

They don’t call it that these days, I sigh.

 

Take these keys, take this knife, these pills, this ring,

these handcuffs. Take them

three times a day with meals, be a showman

at baffling us all until you’re judged safe,

do the world tour. We cut out pictures

from conjurors monthly. ‘Put me in a straightjacket,’

 

you command quietly. How thrilling to be

so close to death. I lower you into packing crates,

boilers, wet sheets, machines, the belly of a whale.

I challenge you to escape from a beer barrel.

‘That’s the hardest trick of all’, you smile.

Write down the history of your magic, tell me

 

you’re a liar and fraud and describe the torture,

overflowing with water. You turn into a bird

in front of me, spread your blue wings and sing

your song of a lifetime of escaping

behind curtains, you say – ‘watch

and learn, We’ll make these tricks into art.’

 

Against the Grain Press

Here is something! Abegail Morley, Karen Dennison and myself have started

Againstthegrainpoetrypress.wordpress.com

@grainpress

We have beautiful, amazing, sparkling poets and their  shining new pamphlets to launch and bring to you.

Anna Kisby’s “All the Naked Daughters”

S.A.Leavesley (Sarah James) ‘s “How to Grow Matches” – Launch at the London Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street, Covent Garden on 31st March – with supporting poets Linda Black and London Undercurrent.

soon to come, Sean Magnus Martin’s Flood Junk, and Jane Lovell’s Metastatic .