This year, as I’ve said before, is the first year that I’ve been writing poetry on a regular basis. Along with writing this blog and posting on Instagram, I decided to enter a poetry competition. My sister suggested giving the Bridport competition a go, as it’s really well known. So I did.

Well, I didn’t win. And I wasn’t long listed. But I did get through the first round. I know that because they wrote and told me – making sure to say that a second round result is still a ‘big achievement”. I haven’t shared the poem that I entered until now. Here it is.

In the ache of your absence
I have tried to let love go.
I put it in a wooden box
and threw it into a lake
but it is drumming beneath my feet 
like Jumanji - 
a deep rumble 
that I can feel in my chest.
Did the box leak?
Should I have sealed it better?
Sent it into space maybe
to be obliterated in the vacuum?
No
it would find its way - 
float as atoms in orbit
and rain down upon the garden we made.
Maybe the only way it will ever
leave here
is in another box 
in the ground -
the one that bears my name.

If you do happen to like it, do consider buying my book “Something Like Perfection” – available now on Amazon. Thank you.