What inspired your poem this month?
Refugee crisis. Rhetoric from the news, social media and politicians are focused on division. We can forget that these are people’s lives being played with. Action at times only takes place when something pierces the collective conscious and even then, how easy it is for the outrage to slip away. I wanted talk about how we are hurting each other and land we live on. How we keep living like the sky won’t fall no matter how much we pull it.
Who do you think writes well on the topic of change?
Imtiaz Dharker a poet, artist and documentary film-maker. She is one my heroes her writing speaks to me and has helped me through my own problems of navigating life. Reading about the change another has lived through can help with your own transitions. About two years ago I got to hear her speak at an event about poetry she said 'a poem is an act of survival' this is stuck in my head. Through living we gain and lose parts of ourselves. When I read her work I feel like poetry is rebirth of your sight, on each revival you see more.
A poem usually catches and imprints a moment of realisation or understanding, a shift in the lens.
Why do you think poetry is a good way to talk about change?
Poetry is a platform for change. A place where the reflections of humankind can run into each other. In poems there are continuous transitions from image to image, one moment the melting ice in a glass to the legs of a feather running. A poem usually catches and imprints a moment of realisation or understanding, a shift in the lens. Poetry gives you the space to see. The space for that reflection on change to be understood studied, taken apart and put together again like the gears of a watch. A poem doesn’t have to rhyme or fit into suit of a sonnet to be classed as a poem. It is a place of choice and unearthing.
How has poetry changed your life?
Poetry has changed everything. Through it I have found community, connection, a place to learn, to fail and to stand again. I’ve always been the quite one in the room, thoughts spinning, fighting and being too scared to speak. I started writing hoping for communication with others. I have found people that believe in me even when I don’t. In poetry I have found my voice, a place to speak and listen. Poems are stories, walking emotions that can flood you, angles of life lived by another. I have seen so many lives through poetry, it has transformed my understanding of what it is to be human.
