How I let the pandemic change me – work
My mum studied with the Open University when I was a child. I remember her being moved by the poems of Heaney and Ted Hughes. She read us the poems and who knows whether it was her passion that led me to my literature degree. She didn’t finish hers, the demands of single parenting in … Read more
How I let the pandemic change me – remember
I don’t know if any of you remember the pandemic?
I don’t mean the fact that it happened,
but how life changed
how you felt when the cars stopped,
when the birds could be heard,
when the air quality improved
when we missed loved ones
and hugs
and smile.
That visceral feeling of what it … Read more
Frogs
Do you think that it is possible that we are frogs boiling in water?
Not noticing how our windscreens are no longer bug splattered on balmy summer evenings
Not noticing how our waking hours are more spent on screens than with soil beneath our fingernails as we plant seeds in mulch and gather the fruits … Read more
‘…Your one wild and precious life?’
It is a Tuesday and I have cleared my diary so that I can work in the garden with the man who knows trees.
‘It’s 2/2/22’ chirps the fruit and veg man and we both wonder if we will live to see 3/3/33, what difference will 11 years make.
‘Tell me, what is it you … Read more
Cars
Big cars
small cars
four wheel drive
or two.
Coffee cup holders middle or side
heated seats and steering wheel too.
Which make or model?
Too much choice
eco, hybrid,
second hand
or new?
‘When we leave home will you do what old people do?
Buy a really expensive car
because you don’t have … Read more
Deep time
We are sitting in the dimmed lights, feet on warm pine floor, in a circle,
watching the flickering screen of home spun film from long ago,
(or not so long,
depending on how long you’ve lived,)
watching children like ours,
and parents like us,
playing with these cards,
this tree house,
running around this garden,… Read more