My New Book of Poems - Which Wrote Itself

The next book, that has been sitting on my floor as a pile of papers, is finally in order. It is in my computer in a word document. It suddenly looks like a book. Very exciting! This one was another born out of lockdown, inspired during walks by the sea in my home town.

Strangely for such a dreadful, isolated eighteen months, it has been one of my most creative patches ever. Creativity was a way of saving my sanity. Whilst it produced something tangible and beautiful, the output was almost a by product of my need to engage deeply with nature. 

Walking every day by the sea, as I did, was a very powerful way to calm myself and lift my mood. The Severn Estuary is a huge expanse of water that rushes in and out at 4 -6 knots, rising and falling over fourteen metres on the biggest tides. The water changes all the time, reflecting the clouds or sun to vary in colour,  anything from deep purple to turquoise blue to a fine mesh of silver. Extraordinary, astonishing and extremely beautiful. 

As the seasons change so does what you see. From the windswept wilds of deep winter, with bare branches and buffeted grasses, to the renewal of nesting birds and fluffy hopping babies alongside pink spring blossoms, through the yellow and white meadows of high summer to the rich auburn tones of autumn.

I didn't set out to write a series of poems that reflected the seasons by the coast. It just happened. I always carry a notepad and pen, and walking so frequently along the coastal paths I couldn't help but be inspired by something different each time. One day it might be the sound of the wind, another the notion of the estuary as a restaurant, yet another the seaweed strung to dry by the tide like a gamekeeper's catch.

Writing at all times of day I realised there was a gap. I hadn't written about dusk or being out in the dark. These were the most challenging to write as one can see less. Somehow this drew out of me some of my best poems yet, with rich metaphors pulled from my imagination to paint a picture in the reader's head. 

So I have the bare bones of another book. Just all the editing, editing and more editing to do now as I go through the process again. But I know it will be worth it. And what I hope more than anything, is that it will take readers to those places that soothed my soul and soothe theirs too.