And here's another one about trains... also one of a short series of poems about my Dad. THE FLYING SCOTSMAN Some Saturdays Dad would take me to the footbridge over the railway lines w...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2024/06/the-flying-scotsman.html
This poem appears in an anthology just published by South West Wales Connected and Severnside Community Rail Partnership. Writers from all over the south Wales region, and south west England, we...
TO THE NEW YEAR You came in full of hope, you’d been gathering it over the last few days, chunks of optimism like sunshine finding gaps between clouds. You are an unexpected rele...
CLINGING ON I hadn’t even seen him as I leaned into the shed, put my hand on the lintel. Then, a scratch on my hand so feint I almost didn’t feel it but I looked up. ...
Someone was asking the other day if I'd written any pantoums, so here's one. I think the form, with useful repetition of lines, works well with the subject. The poem is a response to Andy Warho...
Made some yesterday too ... MAKING CHOCOLATE BROWNIES IN 1964 Her kitchen smells of chocolate all afternoon, warm, intense and welcoming it wraps her in comfort like a cosy ...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2023/07/making-chocolate-brownies-in-1964.html
When I walked up from the beach through the woods at Penbryn yesterday I was reminded of this poem, written in May 2016. It's also in my latest collection, 'Before we Breathe' BOUQUET BY...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2023/05/bouquet-by-beach.html
Parkinson'sUk.org It's World Parkinson's Day. Here's a short thought.... FRAGMENTS Bits of brain fall off; the broken parts of him, things forgotten memories never to be ...
Just doing the Big Garden Birdwatch,which in my small garden involves many sparrows, certainly more of them than any other species here. I wrote this poem in the last couple of weeks after read...
COUNTING DOWN To see a world in a grain of sand And a Heaven in a Wild Flower Hold infinity in the palm of your hand And eternity in an hour (William Blake, from Auguries of Inn...
I wrote this poem a while ago, and was reminded of it this morning when I came downstairs to the kitchen... THE SLUG SLIME TRAIL ON THE RUG IN THE KITCHEN IN THE MORNING (AND WHERE IT MAY LEAD...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2022/09/something-completely-different.html
'Babel' by Cildo Meireles. Tate Modern, London This poem is a response triggered by the installation 'Babel' by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles, which can be seen and heard at Tate Modern in ...
When I wrote this poem it was a response to the fires raging in Greece and Turkey, in particular. This was just before COP26, so I made it an appeal to Governments (why should they listen to m...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2022/07/turning-points.html
It’s World Parkinson’s Day, which is all about raising awareness about the condition, the fastest growing neurological disease in the world. There is no cure, but medication can help to contr...
One and a half million refugees, so far have said their farewells to men who have to stay, as women hold bewildered children and grandmothers weep. A man sees his wife and...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2022/03/all-world-watches.html
We had breakfast by candlelight. The kitchen looked like a church at Christmas thanks to Dudley, Eunice and Franklin, but it wasn’t romantic. It was cold even though it seeme...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2022/02/breakfast-with-dudley-eunice-and.html
A poem written on a recent holiday to the Llyn Peninsular, where we stayed in a cottage on top of the cliffs overlooking Porth Neigwl, also known as 'Hell's Mouth Bay'. A region so loved by R ...
Apparently three million more people are making valuable use of their gardens to grow fruit and veg, thanks to lockdown. (Royal Horticultural Society figures). Here's a poem I wrote early l...
This poem can be performed while eating a sandwich made of mixed green leaves (or not, in which case you have to imagine that I have a sandwich ...) POETRY OF A SANDWICH So many wonderfu...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/07/poetry-of-sandwich.html
Quite a lot of these around in Cardigan Bay just now. These moon jellies are harmless and quite beautiful. AURELIA AURITA Moon jellies bump gently against my body as I float in floo...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/07/aurelia-aurita.html
NAMING THE ROSE I never understood why the red rose grows so well in that small corner. Or why it was called ‘Dublin Bay’. I planted it where the big fern used to be. You ha...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/06/the-dublin-bay-rose.html
Not all the poetry in my new collection is about the sea and coast, some of it is about woods, moss, lichen, and ..... transformation. This poem appeared on my blog a few years ago w...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/04/transformation.html
I know I write this poem from a privileged place. I am lucky to be able to smell haymaking on a hot summer afternoon, and do all the other things that I mention. I live in the country, not far...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/how-to-tell-time-when-we-begin-again.html
Welcome to my new poetry collection! It's my third and I am still a bit staggered that I managed to find a publisher and get another book out so soon. But here we are. This poetry has nothing ...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/03/before-we-breathe.html
The Dulais, south Ceredigion NOT A POETRY POST! I don’t keep a regular journal record of my daily ‘lockdown walks’, I usually just post a photo or two of a scene or plant, but today’...
https://jackie-news.blogspot.com/2021/01/paying-attention-close-to-home.html