Thoughts of a Soo

Click here for Wolfpack Contributor Poems Scroll for a Fevers of the Mind Quick-9 Interview with Sue Finch @Soopoftheday with Sue Finch: Q1: When did you start writing and first influences? Sue: I loved writing poetry at Primary School and have this wonderful memory of being selected to read a poem I had written at a Harvest Festival. My Mum and my Nan were in the audience and I loved the fact there was a lectern and I was reading. I can’t be one hundred percent sure, but I think we were just sort of given a subject and asked to write about it rather than study a poet or poem first! I did more reading of poetry than writing at secondary school, but loved the way I was taught to read poetry closely and the way my teachers seemed to know so much about it. When I went to Teacher Training College there was an opportunity to study Creative Writing alongside the Teaching degree and that’s when I realised how much I loved writing my own stuff. ...

It began with an experimental dip into prose poetry that didn't work which left me with some leopards in leotards. I wasn't sure what to do with my little 'poem' until I experienced my first 10 day isolation period. When I was nearing the end of my time indoors my sister rang to say she had been pinged in another part of the country and needed to complete 8 days. Knowing the leopards would make her laugh I promised her a poem a day and sent it to her. Having slept in the spare room for my isolation and found it strange to fall asleep somewhere different these were all became sleep poems. Here they are:     Leopards   Sometimes when I am dropping off to sleep I try to picture leopards in leotards   I want them to make a circus just for me.     Rhino at bedtime When the spare bed feels too solid I imagine I am a rhino full bellied grass on my breath thick skin against ground ready to dream.   A Sloth S...

The Handless Maiden   Vicki Feaver’s second poetry collection The Handless Maiden (1994) brings together forty-four poems. Three have won prizes: ‘Teddy Bears’ in the National Poetry Competition in 1981; ‘Lily Pond’ in the Arvon Competition in 1992 and ‘Judith’ won a Forward Prize in 1993. For twenty years this book has mattered to me. I return to it to reread the lines I know are there. Its experience and longevity make me determined to be courageous with my own imagery and writing.   Feaver lets us face the fact that love changes, people can be cruel and the shortest exchanges between people can mean the very most. We are reminded that being human is a journey and the paths we take are crossed with pain and loss. This is tempered with the joy found in works of art and the moments when our relationships make us laugh and smile at shared experiences. I chuckle to myself as I imagine who I might wish to be chased naked across the beach by and I a...