Publications

Here’s an (incomplete) selection of my poems elsewhere on the glorious internet and in anthologies.

ONLINE JOURNALS

I am Jealous of the Rain – My geography teacher would be proud – a poem about rain erosion and the pathetic shortness of human life (well, not sure what he would think of the second part!) Published by Ink, Sweat and Tears, September 23

Sisyphus Goes Cheese Rolling   – Yep, Sisyphus gets day release to get up to no good on a drizzly hill in Gloucestershire. Published by Atrium Poetry, July 23

Hansel and Gretel – Well, some kids get lost in the woods, and the laws of the universe have changed, and Ed Sheeran is president. So yeah. Published by Flights, December 2022 and nominated for the Pushcart Prize.

Packed Ham – A poem about a Stone Age man and all the future wonders he is not yet aware of, such as Sertraline and packed ham. Published by Snakeskin, July 22

On Raising a Boy – A tender little poem about bathtime with toddlers.
Published by Black Nore Review, May 22

Erosion, Tiny Things and Box of May – Three poems which were all inspired by nature, but each went its own way. As poems do. Published by Fevers of the Mind Poetry and Art, May 22

Skipper – a poem about a man who lives half-submerged among the strange creatures of the estuary mud, and dreams of his legacy. I don’t know what’s strange about that.
Published by Atrium Poetry, April 22

Woman 2.0 – a boardroom drama about upgrading the female form. Men get involved. It all goes wrong.
Published by Ink, Sweat and Tears, March 22

Pearls – a poem about the weird jabberings I make when half asleep, with a strange little does-it-or-doesn’t-it rhyme scheme.
Published by The Honest Ulsterman, February 22

You and I – a quirky little love story with a twist.
Published by Snakeskin, February 22

Room – I wrote this in lockdown while the walls seemed to be closing in. My bedroom in particular, which also held my home office sometimes seemed to have a mind of its own.
Published by Snakeskin, February 22

Flying Rock – This poem imagines that we all live on a big round rock hurtling through space. Terrifying idea.
Published by Snakeskin, February 22

Jobs – Expressing my frustration with my never ending to do list! This poem is a villanelle – a rhyming form based on repetition, which seems appropriate for the subject matter!
Published by Lighten Up Online, September 21

Oxbow – a poem about sad mutual break-ups, with a metaphor straight from the GCSE Geography syllabus. I KNOW RIGHT.
First published by Allegro Poetry in September 21 – the theme for the issue was “Geography”.
As Allegro’s poems are published in one long scrolling page, you can cheat your way straight to the poem here.

A Spell for Motherhood – I was prompted in a poetry workshop (led by Wendy Pratt – thank you Wendy) to write a spell, and sometimes the brain goes where it wants to go… This poem is roughly speaking a sonnet.
Published by Atrium Poetry, September 21

Autumn in an Envelope – The issue for poets with using “I” as the subject of a poem is that some readers take it to mean the poem is autobiographical. This poem is not autobiographical. I end up dead at the end for one thing. But in a fun way??
Published by Snakeskin, June 2021

Box of May – OK, this IS another poem about my own death, but it’s one I find quite soothing.
Published by Green Ink Poetry, June 2021

Boris Blames the Fish – This was written about fifteen crisises ago, when Brexit talks were stalling over the matter of fishing rights. Needless to say, in the end, Boris chucked the fishermen over the side in his quest for glorious Brexit. Nice. ANYWAY, this poem is in a form called triolet, which I can never say out loud in front of poets, as I’m still not sure how to pronounce it.
Published by Light, December 2020

Lunacy – a poem about accidentally blowing the moon up. Oops. This poem is in quatern form – where the same line is used as the first line of the first stanza, the second of the second, the third of the third and the fourth of the fourth! But don’t let that put you off.
Published by Snakeskin, October 2020

Corona Dance – It’s a bit of a sad one this, about that time in autumn 2020 when the pandemic was droning on with no vaccination yet in sight. On the plus side, it’s a good mishmash of two sonnet forms – Italian and Shakespearean, so that adds the fun factor straight back in there 😉
Published by Snakeskin, October 2020

Where Tears Are – A short poem about all the places in our bodies where we scrunch up and horde our sadness.
Published by Snakeskin, October 2020

The Ballad of the Amazon Man – a comic, tragic tale of love for delivery drivers, and practically the only poem I wrote during the first lockdown in spring 2020. I wonder why I chose this as the theme?
Published by Light, Summer/Fall 2020

Life’s a Bitch, Then Your Cleaner Quits – Originally appearing in Lighten Up Online in March 2020, this is, I have to say, one of my favourite creations. Not only that, it also appeared in the Potcake Chapbook ‘Houses and Homes Forever’ with its very own wonderful illustration by Alban Low.

Britain and I – I  woke up on “Brexit Day”, January 31  2020, in a massively bad mood, so I poemed it out. A few hours later, it was up on The New Verse News – my fastest ever blank page to publication turnaround! Wellll – who doesn’t love a let’s-slag-off-Boris poem?
Published by The New Verse News, Jan 31 2020

Poems at The Hypertexts – the Hypertexts has a selection of some of my earlier poems – well relatively early – I only picked up my pen in around 2017! At that time, I used to write around a poem a day; I’m not sure how I did that, but needless to say they were NOT all good! These are some of the poems I still love though. The last couple may  become songs one day.

Health on the Shelf – the very first poem I ever had published ever was at Lighten Up Online, and I’m eternally grateful to its editor, Jerome Betts for being the first person to take one of my poems on! You can find it in this selection of eight-liners.

 

ANTHOLOGIES

Here are some anthologies which feature my work.

The Potcake Chapbooks series are gorgeously illustrated little books of rhyming poetry, each one on a topic.

My poems feature in:

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Houses and Homes Forever – Potcake Chapbook 8

Robots and Rockets – Potcake Chapbook 9

 

Dreich’s Summer Anywhere anthology is a chunky volume featuring work from a huge variety of contemporary poets:

SUMMER ANYWHERE