It wasn’t the soaring mountain peaks perpetually capped with snowNor the green and purple lights speeding across the night sky It was not the round pebbles and jagged rocks under my bare feetThe shrieks and joyful splashes of water, the gathering storm Not the smell of rotting leaves and mushrooms, with the frost slowly descendingNor…
Poem: Calamity
CalamityIs not the big thingsThose you live your life forDreading It’s the invisible, unexpected, unmentionableOut of the corner of your eyeIn the beat of silence between one song and the next CalamityIs not there in your neatly planned paperwork It roams the streets at nightSlipping through the unguarded cracksAnd fills your house like gasWaiting to…
WFTH Jan/Feb: Speed of light
Write from the heart has now become a quarterly competition rather than a (bi) monthly one, which is understandable given the amount of time it must take to organise, let alone read and rate all entries, on top of actually having to do work which pays the bills. The good news is that you therefore…
Poem: Spring
This is one of the few poems I wrote pre-2020 and one of the even fewer that I feel still holds up after I’ve gotten more into reading and writing poetry over the past year. So, before it’s too late to post a seasonal poem (we had summer here for a few days just now),…
Introvert, broken
Sunday 28th of March, 2021: I just looked at the COVID-19 overview page for the Netherlands and cried. It feels like we’ve been in lockdown since the dawn of time, and nothing is changing. I actually just googled when the current lockdown started, as I can no longer remember. When I typed in “when did…
WFTH December: Stranger Than Fiction
December’s theme for Write from the Heart was “2020 year in review”. A lot can be said about the year 2020, but it definitely gave us some fuel for our creative fires… And while I have your attention, January’s comp has been extended to include February too, so you still have time to submit your…
WFTH November II: Outside
My second entry for November’s “freedom” theme, on the lighter side of things: Outside Outside there’s a fresh breeze, or so you imagine. You can see the rustle of leaves and the ruffled feathers on birds clinging to branches. But you can’t touch. You can’t feel the wind. Only imagine. It has been like this…
WFTH November I: Tether
November’s theme for Write from the Heart was “freedom”. In November I also submitted two entries, and this one was shortlisted: Tether Some days it was taut, like a violin string tightened to its breaking point. Put a bow to it and you’d hear a discordant screech, then the telltale snap. Other days it was…
WFTH October II: It’s Me
My second entry for Write from the Heart’s October comp, with the theme memories. An exercise in dialogue (and nothing but). The charity for October was for Alzheimer’s. It’s Me “No, gran, it’s me, Susie.”“When you were little, your father and I bought you that pink bike, do you remember? You would get up early…
WFTH October I: It’s Later Than You Think
In October I submitted two entries to Write From the Heart with the theme “memories”, this one was shortlisted: It’s later than you think A crunch of gravel and frozen leaves underfoot. Breath turns to smoke, rises up and disappears. A thought chases after, but it evaporates too. A sip of hot cocoa spreads warmth…
