Lemonade Anemone

I’m part of a writing group called Homework. The group started online during the first lockdown in 2020 as a way for local writers to meet up and create during all the pandemic uncertainty.  At the start of each month, we set ourselves a writing prompt. Then, we go away and write, and meet back up at the end of the month to share the results. I joined the group in 2024, and it's been such a lovely part of my routine. I really like the accountability of being invited to produce something new once a month.  Back in May, the prompt was “the dog (or other animal) on the bus”.  I struggled for ages on this one, trying to come up with an interesting angle, a new perspective, but to no avail.  Then, during an idle afternoon of random googling, I came across a recording of the Patterson-Gimlin Film from 1967, which proports to capture a Bigfoot wandering through the forests of Northern California. As I watched the film, I wondered to myself where the Bigfoot in the video was...

In ' The Theory of Everything Else: A Voyage into the World of the Weird ' by Dan Schreiber, he has a section where he talks about endangered species. We all know about the beautiful animals that are endangered - the tigers and elephants and so on - but no one really talks about the ugly, irritating or gross animals that are also on the brink of extinction.  In the book, Schreiber spoke directly to a natural history museum in the Netherlands that was trying to save one such beast from oblivion, and that part of the book inspired me to write this incredibly silly poem (perhaps with a serious message at its heart).  I hope you like it! Endangered Species    When we campaign to save our fleeting beasts,  we focus on the creatures who are nice. The ugly and the gross are thought of least —  does no one care about the pubic lice?!  You might be filled with pure contempt, and scoff  at having a rapport with parasites,  but you’ve been quite annoyi...

I’m part of a group of called DIY Poets , and since 2016, the women of DIY have been hosting an annual event celebrating International Women’s Day .  This year Women Say Stuff hosted its tenth open mic, and it was a really gorgeous evening, where we had the pleasure of uplifting the voices of local women and raising money for Nottingham-based domestic abuse charity JUNO Women’s Aid .  We sold over 100 tickets to the event, secured local sponsorship to pay our staff and performers, and raised over £600 for our chosen charity! Plus, our lovely audience also donated three bags of period products for women in need, which we donated to Nottingham Women’s Centre .  On the night we had twenty-three women on the open mic, plus two fantastic headline sets from Derby-based poet Aoife O’Connor, and WSS co-founder Clare Stewart! (I especially loved Aoife’s award-winning poem “ A Series of Unrelated Small Things .”) On the open mic, we had a real range of topics from maths and to medu...

I’ve been a full-time freelance writer and educator since March 2022, and it’s a great job. No two days are the same, and I get to work on multiple projects across multiple organisations, with very few strings attached.  Of course, there are downsides. No sick pay or pension, having to do my own taxes, and having periods where I’m not sure where the next job is coming from. But all in all, I think the freelance life suits me pretty well.  But I often speak to people who don’t understand what freelancer life is like. They think it’s a doss, or a holiday, or they think I’m just swanning about, like some sort of poetic lady of leisure. And, while I do my fair share of swanning, my freelancing life is a pretty busy one. So, today I thought I’d share an example of what I get up to in a typical week, to give you an idea of what it’s really like!  Saturday: This week, I’m supporting a poetry open mic night and event for International Women’s Day. We have 120 people booked to att...

Asking For It is a series of images, created by photographer Jayne Jackson , representing people from different eras. In each image, the person is photographed as if in a mugshot, with a board which lists their “crime” or the “reason” they were sexually harassed or assaulted. Viewers are then invited to question the motivations of individuals and societies that would consider these “crimes” provocation enough to justify assault. The exhibition highlights the historic and contemporary attitudes to victim-blaming, especially in cases of sexual and gender-based violence.  Image's from Jayne Jackson's Asking For It series The exhibition is due to go on display at the National Justice Museum in Nottingham in March 2025. As part of the project, I was asked to support some writing workshops, working with Jayne and a small group of women from Broxtowe Women's Project to write letters of support to women experiencing domestic abuse.  We also looked at Mrs Pace's letters , whic...

In my day job, I work with organisations across the arts and charity sectors, supporting people to find their creativity through writing. So, I’m always on the hunt for poems, images and music to use as inspiration for poetry.   And this short film, directed by André Musgrove and choreographed and performed by Ariadna Hafez, really caught my eye.  It’s called The Deepest Dance, and shows Hafez dancing around shipwrecks under the ocean off the coast of Barbados. The film is glorious and the behind the scenes making of video is also well worth a watch!  Here's my poem, inspired by the film:  The Deepest Dance  Waterlogged,  she haunts the wreck. A lithe-limbed phantom  of sea salt circumstance. Slick ocean swirls like a spell, suspended  between surface and sea floor,  twisting through coral-covered ruins;  ships brought low by tide and time.  Submerged metal roughness, red with rust,  this bride of barnacles, gentle as gos...