Friends and fellow writers

Over the past three or four years I've been fortunate to work with some excellent local poets and writers. The two groups I work most closely with - Catchword and Picaresque - have provided me with tremendous support and inspiration - and, more than once, with shoulders to cry on!

My friend and Picaresque colleague Jane Malone is probably the most modest person I know, but I so admire her work and I have learned a lot from her. She has the enviable talent of being able to take the most ordinary things and to weave them into some magic poetry. But she also addresses some really big issues in a very down to earth way, as the poem which she has kindly agreed to let me put on the blog this week illustrates. Thank you, Jane - for the poem and for what you've taught me.

Persephone Drowned

You’ve not seen a spring like it. Cataracts spilling

from the clouds. The road washed away. Your cottage

mildewed, fusty, as if you are hunkering underground.

Outside, a quagmire. Saplings uprooted, branches snapped,

daffodils crushed like fallen stars. It makes you stop, breathe

words you’ve heard on the news – flood, sea-level, disaster.

And suddenly you’re on hands and knees grubbing in mud

for seedlings, bulbs, new growth. Remembering the sweet dark soil,

how it offered up richness letting the seasons turn through your hands.

Believing it was enough to keep one patch of earth green.

I started writing poetry three years ago after I retired. This particular poem was written during all the bad weather two years ago when news of flooding was filling our television screens and I was feeling particularly concerned about the effects of global warming.

Jane Malone.