I found a picture of you todaya sudden, faded pocket of blue.It is a heavy thing, how love moves onwhile the ghost of it demands its due. I found a picture of you, and smiledat the giggling corners, the shared glances,smirking together at a friend’s wild hair.Just fragments of a younger sky,safe to look at… Continue reading Pastures New
Category: Poetry
Podcast Episode: Metamorphosis and the Starched Apron. Companion to
‘Welcome to Hospital Corners—an audio mosaic tracing the hidden history, personal memories, and fierce discipline of 1960s nurse training. Based on the poetry and prose of former nursing sister and educator Mary Bray, this series steps past the romanticised myths to explore what it truly felt like to become the hands that care. In this… Continue reading Podcast Episode: Metamorphosis and the Starched Apron. Companion to
Metamorphosis and the Starched Apron.
Hospital Corners Series Part 2. The mid-1960s were defined by a seismic cultural shift—the music was louder, skirts were shorter, and youth culture was rewriting the rules of freedom. Yet, for a young woman stepping across the threshold of the Hospital Nurses’ Home, time didn’t just slow down; it snapped backward into a world governed… Continue reading Metamorphosis and the Starched Apron.
Podcast Episode: Introducing The Hospital Corners Series
Pip: There’s a site called Converging Lives that deals in sounds, silence, and imagery — and this week it’s asking what nursing actually is, beneath the myth of the angel and the weight of the institution. Mara: Sam’s been building towards this for a while. The episode centres on the launch of a new series… Continue reading Podcast Episode: Introducing The Hospital Corners Series
Introducing The Hospital Corners Series
A mosaic of care, memory, and the long lineage of nursing. A series of articles and podcasts highlighting the life and work behind Hospital Corners: Poetry from the Frontline of Nursing Care. Nursing has shaped my life for more than forty years. It has been my work, my education, my community, and often my… Continue reading Introducing The Hospital Corners Series
What do your senses reveal?
Does it taste likesmooth mellow chocolatesweet, smooth and meltingleaving contentmentor is it sharp lemon tartor nutty toasted almondsto savour and linger over Does it taste likepepper, mustard and vinegarharsh on throats hurting stomachsor the cumulative effect ofchilli spice – the cumulative heatthat travels across skin makingperspiration shine andnerves tingle? Does it sound likea celestial choir,Dr… Continue reading What do your senses reveal?
Podcast Episode: Poetry, Imagery And Voice
Pip: There is something quietly radical about the idea that swapping one verb can change the entire emotional weather of a poem — and that is exactly where Sam starts us off on Converging Lives. Sounds, Silence and Imagery. Mara: This episode moves through three territories: how word choice shapes a poem’s soul, how imagery… Continue reading Podcast Episode: Poetry, Imagery And Voice
Night Music
How night changeswith the saxophone’s weep,as notesuntangle themselves—floating in the airlike dandelion seeds.Then, chargedwith bellicose beauty,they meldwith chasing archipelagosfrom nimble fingers,like twirling ribbonsarching through the air.The atmosphere,charged with emotionas the saxophone weeps.
Unwanted Guest
An eight-legged shadow is parked in the place, A master transformer of corners and space. He’s clearing out flies, keeping things in good order, But he’s making me freak—I am no brave marauder! We lock eyes a moment, both freezing in place, A six-foot-tall giant, a speck in his space. My baser instincts tell me… Continue reading Unwanted Guest
The River Teaches
The Rivers TeachesSit comfortably or lay down and open the map with the rustle of intention, unfolding it in your hands like parchment, its edges soft and inviting. Follow the path to the River of Release, here tension dissipates with a deliberate act: listen to the sound of water gurgling over stones. Unclench your jaw,… Continue reading The River Teaches
Converging Lives. Sounds, Silence and Imagery 