I was unable to attend a recent launch event at the Scottish Poetry Library for Beyond the Swelkie anthology in celebration of George Mackay Brown so was asked to contribute a video reading of my poem to be played at the event instead and here it is!

It was lovely to receive my contributor copy of Marble Poetry Magazine with a poem in it I wrote about my counselling room! The magazine is  beautifully put together and is filled with poems and reviews, copies can be purchased here.

I've been invited to read my poems to an Edinburgh-based 'Poem and Plant Hunters' group run by artist, Brigid Collins, who is the artist-in-residence at the secret treasure that is Dr Neil's Garden in Edinburgh. 

I've had such a pleasant time looking out 'plant-themed' poems to read and was surprised to see that I have even more flower poems in the manuscript for my new collection than in my previous collections!

It's been a slow few months poetry-wise with so many other commitments going on. However I did write a poinsettia poem yesterday (which was also my birthday!) and without fail it's flower poems that are the most enjoyable for me to write - the mix of bags of room for playfulness in terms of metaphors and similes and bucket loads of symbolism make flowers the perfect objective correlative (for me anyway).

My current reading includes Surfacing by Kathleen Jamie - her most recent gorgeous collection of lyrical essays exploring different landscapes and lives. And Sharon Olds' new collection Arias which I'm slowly savouring.