The Smokers

With this poem, I’ve attempted to translate the everyday into something a little more poetic. Unusually (at least for me), I put a lot of effort into creating a rhythm for the words, rather than just letting the words flow and seeing how they end up. The first line swam through my head during a day in college with such a particular sound that I couldn’t help but be captivated by this normal yet morbidly beautiful idea. Thus, this poem was created. You can read it now!

Cliff

I’ve got a relatively short but poignant poem prepared for you today! Cliff takes the physical image of a cliff and twists it into a metaphor so that it stands for the self–in this case, my self. At only two stanzas long, it’s definitely not one of my more wordy pieces, but it was written at a fairly thoughtful time in my life and rereading it has conjured up those same emotions and thoughts I was experiencing then. It was interesting, at least, and I hope you find reading it just as interesting!

Packed In Boxes

In case it isn’t obvious from the title, this poem came about from me moving house–or, more specifically, me moving house with my boyfriend and his family. Lots of boxes. Lots of lifting. But also lots of memories of happy times together along with the promise of making more. Having a room called ‘ours’ filled with ‘our’ things is such a beautiful feeling, so I decided to capture the entire experience in this poem!

Tea

This poem was prompted by Potted Purple Mag’s seventh issue’s theme, ‘Culture’. It’s a pretty weird topic for me, and one that I’ve considered before in my writing, since I often find myself wondering what my culture actually is–what it means to be British, in other words. For this poem, my mind immediately went to the age-old stereotype: tea. But I wanted to transform it through personal memories which are unironically ‘tea-stained’, showing the people behind the hot drink which might as well be a meme at this point. So, here are my thoughts on tea; I hope you enjoy reading them!

Wasted

To be completely honest, this poem was born from boredom. I was in class and, having finished my work, turned to a new page in my notebook and wrote down a few lines. Then a few more. Then a couple more, just for good measure. I ended up with a poem! Well, I ended up with three. Only one is here today, though, and that’s ‘Wasted’, a commentary on how adults view modern kids’ childhoods as useless and wasted, largely due to screen time and not going outside like in the ‘good old days’.

Summer Haikus

Three summery haikus are coming your way, thanks to The Young Writers Initiative and their summer camp! In case you don’t know, haikus are three-line poems which are usually about nature and originate from Japan. The first line has five syllables, the second seven and the last another five. I’ve created three haikus on the overall topic of summer: Dappled, Joy and False Night.

Identity Haikus

Hey there! Today, we’ve got three haikus which cover the theme of identity. They draw from my own experiences as well as the experiences of others, and, of course, there is an element of fictionality to them. Haikus are amazing, in my opinion. They’re like little bursts of emotion and description, hidden away in three lines. Please enjoy these three!