27th February

Emily Collis Senior Reporter

Worcestershire Poet Laureate 2017 Nina Lewis, from Bromsgrove

THE search is on for Worcestershire’s next Poet Laureate, to replace last year’s Bromsgrove winner.

Nina Lewis has had a busy year since winning the title in 2017, performing at Lakefest, organising a World Poetry Day event and publishing Contour, a quarterly poetry magazine.

Nina said: “Being Poet Laureate has meant that I am in a position to be an ambassador for poetry, I have taken great pleasure in the writing commissions that have come my way.

“I feel that if you are lucky enough to be the Laureate you should invest time and energy into the role.”

“I am delighted to have discovered poets not known on the Worcester scene – one of my personal objectives.”

Nina was also responsible for curating the ‘Transatlantic Poetry Project – A Tale of Two Cities’ call and response…

Wood Garlic

In the darkness of the ancient woods
a galaxy of fragile constellations –
the spiked flowers of the ramsoms.

The bulbs once harvested for Hecate,
brushed smooth of soil
placed on rocks for the moon goddess.

Bear Leaf – its other name.

Can you imagine the furred beast – talons
like scissors, ripping the stitch of root
from the dark weave of earth?

What a plant! Those delicate blooms,
mimicking the heavens
coupled with that smell –
salty, ripe, heady as hot flesh.
The body’s incense, smouldering.

Aren’t we all wild garlic
rooted into the dark woods

offering ourselves to the gods,
cowering from rough paws,
blazing our pure stars?

Anna Saunders is the author of Communion, (Wild Conversations Press), Struck, (Pindrop Press) and Kissing the She Bear, (Wild Conversations Press) and Burne Jones and the Fox (Indigo Dreams) and the forthcoming Ghosting for Beginners (Indigo Dreams, Spring…