Tag / writing

by Carol J Forrester

This is where my appetite sits – Poem

Have I got the stomach for this?
Probably not.
My gut sits in coils around my torso— squeezing
each time I draw a breath too deep.
There is a trapdoor in my throat which snaps shut,
nerves hammer home like nails,
it becomes the entrance to a fortress, rivetted with iron,
confidence turning to smoke in my mouth,
the tongue behind my teeth is charcoal crumbling.
Every word comes out broken, hissing,
someone sees an ember and crushes it beneath their foot.
I used to think I could starve the anxiety,
or it thought it could starve me.
Truth is, I will devour fear if I am hungry enough,
grimace at the taste, go back for another bite.
These eyes are so much bigger than my belly.

by Carol J Forrester

Leah Atherton – A Sky The Colour of Hope – Book Review

Inspired by her solo fastpack of the South West Coast Path, ‘A Sky The Colour of Hope’ is Leah Atherton’s commanding debut collection, published by Verve Poetry Press in July 2020. It boasts an array of powerfully wild and striking poems, drawing the reader through the poet’s journey of grief after the loss of her father. Atherton sets the tone for the collection perfectly in her dedication when she says “For Papa — I think I understand now” and questions what it means to find yourself when the world around you seems determined to shape you to its own design.

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by Carol J Forrester

Why Is Confessional Poetry Important? Partly Because, It’s A Record Of The Female Experience In A Scale Previously Unseen

Trigger warning: this post mentions harassment and assault.

According to the Poetry Foundation, the term ‘Confessional Poetry’ came into use in 1959. “Confessional poets wrote in direct, colloquial speech rhythms and used images that reflected intense psychological experiences, often culled from childhood or battles with mental illness or breakdown. They tended to utilize sequences, emphasizing connections between poems. They grounded their work in actual events, referred to real persons, and refused any metaphorical transformation of intimate details into universal symbols.” [Confessional Poetry, National Poetry Foundation]. 

Take for instance the poet Isabella Dorta. With around one million followers on TikTok, she is a successful poet who openly calls herself a confessional poet. Her poetry is inspired by past relationships, and personal experiences. Her poetry creates an instant connection with audiences because often she is talking about shared experiences: love, heartbreak, betrayal, and jealousy, which are universal emotions. 

A lot of us have written love poems at some point or another.

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by Carol J Forrester

Poet Mum – Bringing A Baby To An Open Mic

Babies and poetry don’t mix. I don’t remember who said that to me, but I remember it being said, and it stuck. The dread it inspired when I started to consider how being a mum and a poet would work still lurks in the back of my brain, and I probably spend more time than I should be worried over the subject. This post isn’t a how-to on balancing motherhood and writing, but it is my personal experience of how I’ve managed those two elements of myself so far. ‘One size fits all’ is almost always a lie, and it’s important that we share our experiences openly and honestly so that others can find the path that works best for them. Parenthood is riddled with judgements, the sense that we’re not doing enough, and that someone is always doing it better. In reality, most of us are doing our best and that is enough. We don’t need to be perfect, we just need to be ourselves. Finding how we do that is sometimes the hardest part.

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by Carol J Forrester

Home Unbound – Poem

There is so much sky in this county, it stretches from one horizon
to the other, and a string of clouds scattered like vertebra
arch, their edges pink, and hazy, the sun sitting low
beneath this smudged spine
and in response my own joints loosen, unlock,
lungs fill and grow
until they are as big as this county, as big as the sky
finally full, finally home.

The DVersePoetsPub logo. white text on the image of a bar, with a microphone imposed behind the text.