Life is very busy and although poetry has taken a back seat, it is always going on in the background. Plans of a third collection to come out next year, a few poems published, daydreams about what to write next...

This Spain-inspired poem appeared on Ink, Sweat & Tears a while back.

A few poems from my Van Gogh sequence were published in the recent Poetry Salzburg Review.

I'm occasionally contacted by people who have been moved by one of my flower poems and it's nice to know that my poems are out there and working their way into occasional lives despite my minimal active involvement in the current poetry scene. 

I'm so enjoying the work of Matthew Sweeney at the moment, it has taken me a while to really get on board with his poems but I'm seeing possibilities in his work that could potentially help me move on in my writing. I absolutely love his poem The Owl. 

Mary Evans Picture Library/John Maclellan

I don't think about the old world now - pre-covid life - in fact it barely crosses my mind. I'm living in the here and now, taking each day, each week with its own plans, expectations, pressures and commitments. I'm lucky to have enough in my life to occupy me during this slow snail's pace existence. I have essays to write, reading to do, children to look after, counselling commitments, a dog to walk. The days and weeks are ticking by in ultra-slow motion. I dare not look ahead to the end of this lockdown or imagine life beyond covid - that would make the present unbearable. 

I stopped my ekphrastic writing spree at twenty poems and have since culled three from the sequence of poems as not up to standard. But the remaining seventeen poems I'm happy with! I recently re-read Sharon Olds' beautiful collection Stag's Leap and I so much admire how she shines a light on the tiny, mostly unnoticed moments in daily life and relationships and yet which encapsulates the essence of those relationships.  

Being called 'young' in the poetry world has a decidedly different meaning from how the rest of the world defines 'young'! So bearing that in mind I'm happy to have a selection of poems translated into Greek in a newly published anthology of contemporary young Scottish poets (featuring also some genuinely young Scottish poets!!). 

I have a poem showcased on the Mary Evans Poems and Pictures blog which you can read here.

I've lost count how many weeks into lockdown we are. And in some ways that's a good thing, I've finally adapted to and accepted the way life has changed. I know we'll be on our way out of lockdown soon and the changes will stay with us for the foreseeable future.

What I've badly missed is my commuting / travelling time - as a non-driver who lives in little town out of the way; on a weekly basis I'm used to a lot of travelling via boat, train and bus. And I enjoy it! It's my reflective time, my reading time, my jotting down images and thoughts time. I've also missed coffee-shop writing time! The business and bustle around me helps me write at the early stage of working on poems and then when I'm in the pit of the poem I need the peace & quiet and my own space to write it.

I'm delighted to have my poems 'Look to the Crocus' and 'The Complicated Sex Life of Primula...' in this month's issue of Poetry Magazine which you can read here!
I also have a lockdown poem, 'The Solitude Stone' on Andy Jackson's and Bill Herbert's brilliant Postcards from Malthusia series of poems written in response to the pandemic.
And...I have a poem about Spanish orange trees -  'The Orange Trees of Altea' on Atrium Poetry!

The 1st of June has never been as sweet as this one!! I can't really believe my Mary Stuart poem is in this month's POETRY magazine (taking up a whole nine pages!!) alongside poetry greats Alice Oswald, D. Nurkse and Sinead Morrissey amongst others, yet here it is - 

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/detail/89360

Three new poems from Our Real Red Selves online: -

Iceland Poppies and Dinner are up at The Ofi Press (Mexico)
The Un-Mother can be read at Ink, Sweat & Tears!


I'm working on a long poem about Dunoon's Victorian timber pier. I've no idea where I'm going with it and haven't worked out the heart of it yet. All I know is that it's the only thing I've been drawn to writing about over the last few months. I'm building up ever expanding notes and have a few sections that seem complete in themselves but not knowing the overarching theme is annoying!

Delighted to have poems in both of these lovely magazines which the postie delivered last week!
Quietly working away, writing and submitting when I get the chance in between the usual hustle and bustle of family life. Sorley's head teacher has invited me to talk to a primary class about poetry which I cautiously said I would think about! Slightly terrifying prospect but I've had lots of good advice via facebook on how to excite a class of kids about poetry so I may agree to do it after all! Reading Best American Poetry 2012 at the moment and loving so many poems in it. Also reading Pascale Petit's The Treekeeper's Tale, which is fantastic. And enjoying reading Anne Sexton's biography by Diane Middlebrook. The May writer's retreat is slowing edging closer and I'm so much looking forward to it!