Thoughts of a Soo

There have been many good things this December for me to reflect on whilst I isolate and wait for Covid to leave my body... Annick Yerem including 'Skating' in her poetry advent calendar . This poem was first published in December 2020 by Ink Sweat and Tears and it is so lovely to hear it read. Hosting Top Tweet Tuesday and being fully immersed in all the poetry submissions: 'Hopscotch' being published by One Hand Clapping. Taking a trip to see my family beside the sea: 'Blade' being featured in The Ink, Sweat and Tears 12 Days of Christmas Feature and remembering this photogr aph that was tweeted from an article that started the poem's creation in August 2020:  December is a special month: https://twitter.com/missyerem/status/1468485462029479937?s=20 https://twitter.com/missyerem/status/1468485462029479937?s=20

I was fortunate to experience a grand day out in Manchester for the launch of this book on 20th November 2021. It felt so good to be able to meet up at 'the modernist' and spend time celebrating the creation of 'Queer Writing for a Brave New World' and then to toast its journey into the world. Huge thanks to all those involved in putting the work together - an excellent mix of words and art has been created. It is a book well worth buying. My contribution, 'Museum of a Life', started its life on a page of my journal during an Arvon course tutored by Caroline Bird and Richard Scott. The words I began putting together that day demanded to be revisited and the poem then took shape. I am proud that it has made its way into print as it is the kind of poem that had to be set down on the paper (and the pages it is set down on are orange). If you read it or listen to my video reading then I hope it makes you smile too. "Museum of a Life' reading Photos by &

This half term, I asked my sister to take me for a walk along long things. We walked the pier (pausing for a ride on the Carousel) and then the harbour arm. I love being at the end of things and on the edge of things. So good too to catch a rainbow on the sea.   Before we went out I asked my Mum and Dad to join me in a photo and we squished on the garden bench and then relocated when we realised the sun was right in our eyes... Here's to me and my sis and that rainbow. And to remembering that storms soaking you makes you feel real, and when you put a neck scarf on your head it keeps your hair dry, but makes your sister laugh. And here's to the fact hot showers and dry clothes are blessed indeed. And here's to future adventures and pizza parties and laughter and to friends that buy the party rings when they know you're coming to town.

I think this supercedes my other Autumn poems... This Was Once a Good Poem   but it has eaten cheese and pickle rolls for a week now and it can’t work out why the vitamins aren’t working. It rocks in the chair until its eyes are too tired to see and has scared itself with thoughts of Autumn spiders under glasses in the hallway. It is wondering if it is true that conkers in corners keep arachnids at bay and is now standing in the dark sniffing last year’s horse chestnuts desperate to find their scent.   The poem began forming during an Arvon Masterclass run by Caroline Bird and I wanted it to become a little whole thing of its own. It was then published by Ink, Sweat and Tears as part of their 'Choice' themed National Poetry Day feature 2021. I love the Ink Sweat and Tears site all year round and thoroughly enjoy exploring the poems chosen for the annual celebration of National Poetry day.

When people shift shire to be with you lots of things like this bring big smiles...   selfies like this super-sized marshmallows round a camp fire shadow selfies like this   sheep that go away   and sheep that stay for a bit     high places to be     bubbles blown for wishes   windy places to pose   waterfalls to see   zoo places to pose   selfies like this     and puddings like that.  

I love the fact that after so many months I finally managed to meet up with my lovely friends. Here's me and Sarah being so excited to have a photograph together we do it with the framed fire notice in the hotel room. (It was a lovely hotel in Lichfield called St John's House if you ever need a nice place to stay in that area. One that I would go back to.) We lit candles in the cathedral, forgot to photograph St Chad and laughed so much I cried. We had dinner, I had my first Long Island Iced Tea and we wore our emergency moustaches. This was a much needed 24 hours in someone else's city.

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. Q2:

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 Sleeps I can’t

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 am pleased

A colander for capturing an eclipse once delighted me...  CASTING SHADOWS   The day greys and yellows around us stops the birds singing. We feel the tightness of this new silence as the air cools rapidly. We know not to stare  so I am holding a colander to the sun casting shadows on the ground. So many tiny solar bodies eclipsing, emerging.   A photograph to capture the day to remember we were alive we saw it. I fear it will be too small but when you show me I am holding that eclipse in the palm of my hand.

Tea and biscuits. A sis and the old pier. A shadow photo.   Gulliver.   Cake.   A walk where the wild garlic grows (before cake).   Good greetings. Frank.    That Fiddlehead Fern poem... We Few Deified We Few  

I popped into Mold Bookshop on Saturday 22nd May 2021 to sign some copies of my poetry collection which has now been in the world for just over half a year. This felt good and I like the fact that I am wearing my 'Wonderfully wild and dark' sweatshirt. These words were used by Liz Berry to describe an early draft of my poem 'Flamingo' which I sent to her after being inspired by her poem 'Bird' whilst studying for my MA in Creative Writing. I was so excited that a poet I admired attributed these words to something I was working on that I got this sweatshirt made (thank you Lisa Macario ). You can listen to 'Bird' by Liz Berry here.

 Two poems for Dawn Chorus Day:   It is Not About Dawn   It is about that moment before the dark time breaks, being present in the silence, standing still in an exact moment.   It is all about when that first bird sings.   First light,   the fact that there is an order, that layer upon layer sculpts the day’s beginning.   It is about discovering how long it takes before the crow starts to echo back with his rough cruck, cruck answers.       Dawn Chorus   Your bed was a lazy lover, warm and familiar, holding you.   Yet soon the birds would be waking, mapping out a set of songs to greet the moon-washed sky.   I waited for you to free yourself to stand and listen as the mist thinned so we, too, could welcome the new day.