Congratulations to UoL PhD Creative Writing student Cathi Rae, who has just published two new poetry pamphlets!
Cathi Rae is a poet, spoken word artist and educator. She is currently in the final stages of a practice led/creative PhD at the University of Leicester, where she was also a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing. She has performed throughout the UK, including readings at Womad Festival, The Houses of Commons, Chiltern Arts Festival and many spoken word and poetry events up and down the M1 and M6. She has just published two new pamphlets of poetry with Two Pigeons Press: Just This Side of Seaworthy and Other Poems, and Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Poems. You can read about these two new collections and a sample poem from each below.
About Just This Side of Seaworthy and Other Poems, by Cathi Rae
Just This Side of Seaworthy and Other Poems is a pamphlet collection which explores ageing, ageism and how older people navigate the world. It challenges the ageist notions that older people have less validity or become invisible.
From Just This Side of Seaworthy and Other Poems
Just this side of seaworthy
I could be you
another older woman our bodies bearing
one carefully cherished child
just the one
no time to make another
no time to try again
I was akin to you almost kin to you
recognising this stony skerry
where you stand washed up
I too have swum these currents
tides that trick and tease
entice you on towards the shore
I feel your unsteady steps
across a beach
a beach in name alone
black blasted rock ground down to grey
somehow
I avoided this this destination this depression
with frantic paddling bailing out
keeping my head above the water
watching you and those like you
who submerged beneath the sea
and emerging
found themselves sea changed
the boat the tides the landing
repeat repeat repeat
a life on endless loop
your coracle
just this side of seaworthy
crafted from a faded photograph
gives up the ghost and floats in-land
oars that drop and drift away
your gasping grasping breath
presence of pain still presence of a sort
knocked backwards you attempt to stand again
fingers clutch at the last remaining
half remaining almost-memory of croft wall
grip slipping on moss slick stone
peering out to sea myopic in mist that never lifts
cataract-vision
and on this chain that reaches back
to meet the mainland
I’m standing on another island
larger the trees a little taller
hints of green and growth
holding on
hoping knowing
that this must pass.
About Rock, Paper, Scissors and Other Poems, by Cathi Rae
Rock, Scissors, Paper and Other Poems is a taster selection from my PhD work, a collection of poems based on conversations and interviews with individuals who shared their lived experience with me.
From Rock, Scissors, Paper and Other Poems
Brick Dust
You tell me about the brick fields
where red dust earth and red brick dust become impossible to separate
and paint the little boys in red dust too
little boys who work for food
and you tell me what happens to little boys who work for food
and now I can’t unknow that
You tell me about the onion factory
where you peeled skins and were in turn
unpeeled yourself
and as we talk I’m crying onion tears
and I try to keep the sobs inside and silent
as you too must have done when you were small
You tell me about the coming here
boys packed into room too tight
to house so many bodies
you sent that hard-earnt money home
planned triumphant returns full pockets and a sharp new suit
until one day home was here but never truly here and no longer there
You tell me about marriage love and madness
times when you were racked with shame
but didn’t have the words to name the fears in any language
but Djiin or ghost seems closest
the boy you used to be
still haunts this broken self
You tell me about love
your wife become a tree in whose shade you hide
shelter from a burning sun and later still the British rain
your children never hungry safe you say and loved
their lives a world away
from red dust brick dust onion peeled boys
