On this New Year’s Eve echo past celebrations. With white lights to celebrate Christmas – now To cobbles, the ancient squares, streets strung

Shops shining from the arches melting down Themselves into walkways hung above Shambles Steps we’d climbed to medieval shops tucking When the days were long, now in nakednessĮxpose sinews of their growth against this close.įrom the walled city’s twisted, cobbled lanes, That once had borne crowns of green leaves Pink stems firing upward along this canvass, The sky was an arc of grey splashed by blue:

I have a New Poem Published in December’s issue of Reach Poetry Indigo Dreams its “December’s Last Canvass I’ll be challenging time and continue to submit to magazines & publishers, go to meetings at the Blue Cap and keep writing, submitting and valuing the friendship, hard work and fun of this group who have helped me to connect and settle in Cheshire since I came after a difficult time and the loss of my husband. What of the future? I hope to get another Pamphlet or Collection out it’s a “Goal” but difficult this year as so many publishers have cut back but I’ll still enjoy the celebration of the 20 th Year of the Group, its Celebration at Winnington Hall in April, Bob & Carol’s hosting of the Summer Party, the Tonia Bevans Award Ceremony and Christmas Party! I have also been fortunate enough to be included in the yearly anthologies. When I started to write seriously after my children were older- Between Bamboo is dedicated to them and my husband – I joined the Poetry Society and went to many events and nights in the Poetry Café, Torino Poetry and Rhythm & Muse as well as Stand up’s and the Ormond Poetry in Kensington & Richmond – I’m still a member of this group and we Zoom.īeing a member of the VRWG, together with the Mid-Cheshire Stanza, has helped me settle in Cheshire and I love the meetings: listening to other voices for it welcomes all writers and in the meeting I listen to their work: everything from Bobs crime to Memoir & Fantasy, also before the Lockdown my first visit to Gladstone’s was wonderful. I started writing seriously in the early 1990’s and found poetry a very natural way to write, inspired by events, surroundings such as seeing a man on a bench and it inspired the following poem: My first poems were written on a manual typewriter and then a wardresses – finally I got a desktop and started to submit electronically! Some the poems were chosen to appear on the Busses. Cheshire was new to me after years of writing and having a Pamphlet “Between Bamboo” published by 2002 and a collection “Timelines” Published by Indigo Dreams by 2014. I joined the VRWG after I moved from London in 2017, I was looking for a writing group and was welcomed by Bob and Marian, Liz and particularly Tonia (sadly missed by all) who introduced and came with me to several events in Northwich.

From London to Cheshire My Journey & Goals for 2023

Timelines by Carolyn O'Connell