Photo by Dot & Lucy Photography
American expatriate Carrie Etter has lived in England since 2001 and taught creative writing at Bath Spa University since 2004. She has published three collections, The Tethers (Seren, 2009), Divining for Starters (Shearsman, 2011) and Imagined Sons (Seren, 2014), and edited the anthology Infinite Difference: Other Poetries by UK Women Poets. She also reviews poetry, most recently for The Guardian and The Warwick Review. She has blogged since 2005 at http://carrieetter.blogspot.com.
A Birthmother’s Catechism
How did you let him go?
With black ink and legalese
How did you let him go?
It’d be another year before I could vote
How did you let him go?
With altruism, tears, and self-loathing
How did you let him go?
A nurse brought pills for drying up breast milk
How did you let him go?
Who hangs a birdhouse from a sapling?
Photo by Martin Figura
Catherine Woodward is a poet, producer and freelance creative writing teacher. She runs the monthly Live Lit Lounge at The Birdcage Norwich and her self published poetry pamphlet is called ‘Hot Damn’, you can read it here http://
Photo by Martin Figura
Stuart Charlesworth is a learning difficulties nurse. He has an MA in creative writing from UEA and degrees in nursing and international politics & history. He was co-creator of the Threads translation group and is a Café Writers Norwich Committee member. His poems have appeared in Lighthouse and Poetry Review.
Wind and Nothing
It is late. Before I lock my door
I check nothing is in the back yard
and the stray tom of the night wind rubs against me.
In bed pretending to sleep, I plan —
I will build a wide hall around the breeze
— slow it to still air,
pump out the gasses, pollen and dust
and get all this done before dawn
under a clouded sky
and nothing will evade me.