Mother’s Milk Prize

It’s been a while! And since I last blogged, the world has become a very different and difficult place in so many ways. It’s still hard to fully digest the enormity of it all, even weeks after lockdown started in the UK. I’m running workshops online as the new normal, keeping busy, and being thankful for everything I have right now.

As it is for everyone, the worry keeps seeping in though. It’s a daily job for all of us to try and prevent it from flooding in too much. I’ve also recently been told I’m possibly higher risk by the shielding team due to issues I had during cancer treatment. In some ways, I’m reminded of that year a lot (2015), the way everything feels like a strange parallel bubble to normal life.

Anyway, I digress. Just an update with some good news – I’m delighted to be a runner up in the Mother’s Milk Prize for my poem Walk by the Thames.  It was a difficult poem to write and I was never sure about writing it. Thank you Mother’s Milk Books and judges Ruth Aylett & Beth McDonough for the lovely comments:

Essentially, although all the poems chosen are very different from one another, what they all share is a commitment not only to their story, but to language and to the discipline of poetry. Those standing out from the others showed evidence of not only writing but of careful reading of poetry. Each of them found an unexpected way into the subject. ‘Walk by the Thames’, which came from a different, but equally, unpredictable place, controlled its narrative and pace beautifully in quatrains. What a fabulous final line.

This was a lovely boost! I’ve also not blogged since my Poetry Wales reading at Gladstone’s Library, which was such a lovely night, and since seeing my double spread in The Rialto, two poems about journeys to and from the sea. One dark, one light! Thank you to both for publishing my work.

Anyway, I hope this finds you safe and well, reader. All best to you, and to us all, and let’s hope the world looks brighter soon.