Water holds the sky

where herons stalk eels.

Stately assassins inch

through flooded fields

in slowest motion, until the kill,

the stabbing blade,

a speed-blur you never see,

and never will

until it is too late.

Leveret Press is a publishing venture run by fellow writers Philip Dunn and Sue Wallace.

Keep watch here for a new publication around Easter 2020, featuring my favourite Welshman, Vernon Goddard, and lucky me. No title yet. Something will emerge, it always does.

Good wishes. Keep writing.

By the time I hear Go!

she is already gone,

into the water,

which closes around her,

welcomes her in.

Released, at last,

yards down her lane,

she is changed.

In her element, flowing,

so practised it seems effortless,

natural, both girl and seal,

a new creature, beyond me.

She makes her kick-turn,

nails it with precision, economy,

nothing wasted,

powers back,

trailing silver, spiralled air,

leaving me in her wake,

awestruck, wondering

how to stop time.

This is my first post. This blog will talk, sometimes meanderingly, about writing, especially poetry; about my work, poets I admire, raising questions about writing and art. I hope you find something useful here, if only to disagree with my stuff and sharpen your own thinking.

Writing, for me, Is work. For those of us under its spell, it’s necessary, fundamental, as joyous as it is tough. How often does a poem simply happen, spring from us fully formed? Some just don’t want to be here, others take work. Knowing when to put the pen down, leave things a while, coming back with new eyes, takes practice. Confidence.

I’m fortunate enough to have been given a writing home within the critical friendship of a small group of East Midlands poets. If you can find a group of sympathetic word addicts like yourself, do it, you won’t regret it. If you are open to it, your work, and theirs, will become stronger.

Ok, enough for blog #1. Happy writing.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.