Publications

The wind’s economy: Footdee, Aberdeen

The North Sea wears blue today,
edged with tawny sand, green frills of seawrack.
Behind the old fishertown,
a regiment of giant silver-armoured silos,
glutted on oil and cement.

The wind will not be ignored. He jostles, harangues.
His ozone scent is elemental. Before all,
he knows, he makes our city’s wealth.

Once, he bellied the russet sails
of herring fleets, sang them out of harbour
to plenty or to death. The silver shoals dwindling,
he crooned a new song of gain
around flarestacks and platforms, long supply ships
like dazzle-painted icebergs.
Now he leads the slow waltz of wind turbines.
His gale-rage tamed, he is his own harvest.

But in the old village, the fishers’ cottages
crouch like grey granite cats, turn their backs on the sea.

Mandy Macdonald

Australian writer and musician Mandy Macdonald lives in Aberdeen on the cold, beautiful North Sea coast of Scotland. Her poems appear in journals such as The Poets’ Republic, Causeway/Cabhsair, Coast to Coast to Coast, Marble and Firth, and in anthologies from Luath, Arachne, and Grey Hen.

Photo credit @Ianjsimpson at http://www.unsplash.com

Holiday

There are no tides to speak of,
just a six inch shift to and fro
under the pink shrimp moon.

Coral seams the beach
with its thin red stitches,
the shells and sea glass sewn in to sand pockets.

The reach of a slick rock finger
into the sucking mouth of the ocean.

Grody olive trees plaque around hollow hearts,
cicada beat loud for their emptiness.

Where the once rivers are,
frog pools chorus the dusk
as if each pool were a new star birthing.

Here roundabouts are fig orchards
their elephantine trunks spread like the first tree.

Last years olives are ours
and we swim until our bones are ice.

Susannah Violette

Susannah has had poems placed or commended in the Plough Prize, Westival International Poetry Prize, the Frogmore poetry prize, Coast to Coast to Coast Pamphlet Competition and appeared in various publications worldwide most recently Pale Fire (anthology of contemporary writing on the moon), For the Silent (anthology supporting the work of the LACS), You Are Not Your Rape (anthology of empowerment and overcoming rape) Strix and Eyeflash.

Photo credit @simplelovelyuseful at http://www.unsplash.com

Susan Taylor has eight published collections and a number of pamphlets, the latest of which, The Weather House, written with Simon Williams, was published by Indigo Dreams. Susan is also a spoken word artist, currently developing her first solo show, La Loba Enchanting the Wolf.
You can read more about Susan here ~ http://www.susantaylor.co.uk
https://m.facebook.com/dartmoorpixy/

Photo credit @jeremybishop at http://www.unsplash.com

The Beach at the Back of the Ocean

beach folds me into rock
breathes me into tideline
air sails me on wingbeat
grounds me into shell-sand

I am a flurry, a twist
a tumble of hither-thither
Iona caught me in her net
tossed me in her flow

Rachael Clyne

Rachael Clyne – from Glastonbury, is published in journals including: Rialto, Under the Radar, Shearsman, Lighthouse, Interpreters House, Prole. Her prizewinning collection about our relationship with nature, is Singing at the Bone Tree (Indigo Dreams). Her pamphlet Girl Golem, (4Word Press) is about her migrant heritage and sense of being ‘other’. You can read more here ~ http://rachaelclyne.com/?cat=7

Photo credit ~ @farbensammier at http://www.unsplash.com