poem – A Year of Time

A tanker slips up the Firth

Seeming not to move but the river drifts by

I stand at the slide and watch her go

Wonder where and when she has been

Not long ago many boats sat out there

Cruise ships, containers and tankers

Anchored fleet of metal seabirds

Still like the world, if not the waves and sky

Funny to think of that time

No trains, no planes, all the boats stilled

And us tuckered away in our homes

A stayed and quiet world in appearance

Mind Burble

I don’t write poetry and not because I don’t love it! I adore Billy Collins, Elizabeth Bishop, Carol Ann Duffy, Emily Dickinson, Maya Angelou and Ted Hughes to name just a few. I admire those who can create poetry, it is not an easy art and it is such a personal one.

But this poem Meadowfield Park, had been forming in my mind for a number of years. Its about my local park where even before covid I spent many hours with my dogs and son, but during covid it became a haven to us. I used to stand at the crest of the hill by the long metal slide and stare out at the ships which had been forced to dock in the Firth of Forth thanks to the virus. They captivated me. Who was on them? Where had they been going? I had so many questions.

My poem began there during covid as I stared at anchored ships and wondered when the world would return.

I sometimes can’t believe covid happened. Everyone’s experience of that time was different and I am not here to have an opinion on what happened, or the rights and wrongs of it. But I do find it fascinating when covid creeps into the arts – I felt numb the first time I saw it in a television show, I was oddly excited the first time covid raised its ugly head in a short story I was reading. To me there is something cathartic in seeing covid acknowledged in creative form, but for others I suspect it is the opposite.

Roddy Philips who runs the online creative writing workshops I have previously spoken about put together an anthology of the writers work that was created during covid – Still Life. I loved pouring over this book, being able delve into other peoples creative reactions to covid.

I have a reading wish list of books which feature covid, Fourteen Days – Margaret Atwood & Douglas Preston, Companion Piece by Ali Smith and The Sentence by Louise Erdrich to name a few. It isn’t easy to read about but for me it helps.

I wonder how other writers have handled covid and if it makes its way into their work. How has it been writing about covid? Was it difficult? How did it impact peoples creative process? Except for this poem, I haven’t tackled it yet in any significant way.

Thank you for reading!

Mind Burble

This is an excerpt from a longer piece which I wrote about my son and his congenital heart disease. I hope to do something with the complete piece in the future. It is the hardest thing I have ever written and certainly the most personal. I found that as I wrote about his journey and what we went through there were things I couldn’t say without breaking into poetic prose, so throughout the story, there are sections like the above part.

Writing about personal grief is a new thing to me. Yes, I spend a lot of time crying when I write about my son or my mother, but I feel lighter, perhaps not always better, but unburdened. It is helpful.

My hope is that my story Pandoras Box will help raise awareness of congenital heart disease. Congenital heart disease is one of the most common types of birth defect, affecting up to 9 in every 1,000 babies born in the UK. During our time in Great Ormond Street we met many other wonderful children who like my son had been born with congenital heart conditions. Their strength and bravery, and that of their families was both inspiring and humbling. Heart Warrior Children are amazing.

Today was my sons bi-annual check up at the hospital and he did amazingly. His heart is functioning brilliantly and we don’t need to go back for another two years unless things change, but touch my wooden head hopefully they wont. I am so proud of him.

Congenital Heart Disease – Bing Image Creator