It gives me great pleasure today to invite along a fabulous poet, Rachel Deering, who I got to know via Twitter. Rachel has come along to Patricia’s Pen to chat about her writing and she also shares a poem. Without further ado, it’s over to Rachel.
My Writing
Rachel Deering
In January, 2020, just as the pandemic was unfolding, my debut poetry collection Crown of Eggshell was published. I had started writing again after ten years, rejoined the wonderful writers’ site, ABCTales, and tentatively started a Twitter account with the thought that I ought to be on social media of some description in order to promote my collection. I had no idea what I was doing. However, I gradually met some of the loveliest people in the poetry community on Twitter, including participating in #TopTweetTuesday most weeks, courtesy of @blackboughpoems.
I regularly share my poetry on Twitter via links to ABCTales. I write as ‘onemorething’ on the site. I can fully recommend the site to any writer – another kind and supportive community. I started writing when I was very young as a medium for expressing my feelings (badly) and continued into adulthood. I only began sharing my poetry though in my early thirties and was published in a number of anthologies. I have always used and been drawn to writing poetry as an outlet for self-expression, but through the editing process for my collection, I feel that I have become a more confident writer.
Crown of Eggshell is a collection of poems that I intended to be a journey of recovery – of movement from darkness to light. I love birds so there are regular references and also to my love of mythology and folklore. My inspiration comes from a personal connection I feel to something I have seen, heard or read – whether it’s on a walk, a painting, a radio programme, or a book about wildlife.
Nightingales – Rachel Deering
These plain nightingales are monks
who chant in secret,
hymns of constellations,
cloistered in brown robes, to hide
and stalk the refectories
of their woodland floors,
blended to this umbered domain.
All the brightness is in the notes
that ring out; we could hear
the magic of it,
as if the sepia of their plumage
had drawn the colour out
and thrown it into the air
as new quavers that voice
our more modest hopes and wishes.
They sing their nocturnal prayers
for Spring and love,
a dance of fantails
and nests of dark emeralds.
~~~
About Rachel Deering
Rachel Deering was born in Devon, but has lived in lots of different places around the UK. She is now settled in Bath. Rachel has worked in education for over 25 years. Rachel loves long walks, wildlife, art, literature, history, mythology, folklore, fairy tales, music and her garden. She is completely devoted to her cat ‘The Bear’. Her most treasured books are The Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, The Complete Poems and Plays of T S Eliot and The Golden Bough. She is very passionate about the environment and how we treat one another in society.
Links
Patricia M Osborne 