JUNE already, 2023

More busy writing months to share – and an adventure with puffins!

The first three months of 2023 were spent fine-tuning submissions for publication. First came Beyond the Moment – Writing from the Salish Sea, the third collaborative chapbook published in April in cooperation with Sooke Writers’ Collective. That was followed in May with Sooke X0 – a tenth anthology, marking the Collective’s ten year anniversary celebrations. What a honour to have had work included over the past five anthologies!

Beyond the Moment contains three brand new poems, all varied in their themes. The first, Hammond’s Hill, was inspired by the near-death recollections of the international motor racing star, Roger Hammond. The second, The Shard, drew on my memories of running my ceramics studio in Widdington, Essex. The third, yes no maybe, addresses a period during which I felt unable to write – as if my Muse had faded, deserted me. This is an experience to which I am sure many artists, songwriters and writers can relate.

For Sooke X0, I wrote a nostalgic piece, recalling the apprehension of attending the first feedback sessions with the Collective. A Tale of a Tail is also included, after being chosen for Vancouver Island Regional Library Sooke’s 2022 Poetry Walk.

Here I am reading it at the tenth anthology launch on 27th May in the Pavilion at Sooke Region Museum, having just returned from the travels outlined below.

AND NOW FOR THOSE PUFFINS …

Having submitted all my final pieces by the end of March, I travelled first to Wales to stay once again in the charming tiny city of St David’s. I took a boat to Skomer Island in order to see (for me a first) puffins – and was rewarded with the sight of hundreds, gathering in the turbulent waters around the Island. I was lucky enough to be aboard one of Thousand Islands charters and spent a fantastic day afloat, learning amongst other marine facts that the puffins would not come ashore to nest and lay until July. I resolved to return one day and make landfall.

The following day was booked for a visit to Ramsay Island, the back-drop to a passage in my poem The Shell Seeker in Bits of String & Thread (2021) with the intention to land and explore the farmhouse and ruins of the chapel on foot. Sadly, high winds and record swells prevented this. Instead we circumnavigated the shoreline of the Island, spotting petrels, gannets and shearwaters.

Huge thanks to Captain Padrig of Blue Shark Charters Ltd for two unforgettable sea adventures. I shall be back for more!

CORONATION CELEBRATIONS!

On 6th May, 2023, I joined a congregation of over 200 people in Salisbury Cathedral to watch the coronation ceremony broadcast live. As the arched ceiling of Westminister Abbey filled the screen, it was framed around me by the massive arches of Salisbury Cathedral’s equally impressive Nave.