Store it Up
On becoming like a squirrel and exciting writing news!
I came across one of my old blog posts from 2017, and it felt apt to share it ahead of today's news.
Store it Up
A kernel is sometimes all it takes. A feeling, a word, an image, or perhaps a verse from a song that sums up the way we are feeling. Store them up, write them down.
In those years of relentless parenting, with three under-fives, I often had a feeling, or a desire to say something that would be snatched away in the chaos. So, although it may be one of your most testing times, you are also generating a rich seam of material which you will come back to mine later. Sometimes, our job is just to capture that kernel and save it for later. Robert Frost said, 'A poem begins as a lump in the throat, a homesickness, a lovesickness. It finds the thought and the thought finds the words.' (Quoted in Finders Keepers, Seamus Heaney.) As long as you capture that feeling, you will be able to work your way back into it later on.
When I was trying to get started on my book about parenting, creativity, and faith (Circles), I knew that there were certain things I wanted to write about, but I didn’t have the time or the head space to make sense of them. So, I made a file for each subject area, and would add a quote here, a poem there, a feeling whenever I could grab a moment. Sometimes they were scribbled on bits of paper and stashed away on my desk until I came to unearth them. A year or so later when I finally had the headspace and time, I wrote it all up and it came together quite quickly because the material was ready and waiting.
So, take it one day at a time, enjoy the crazy times, and see them for what they are... all the exhaustion, relentlessness, and the rich lessons they bring. Store up your material like squirrels for the winter and when the time comes to write, you’ll be ready."
Sometimes we are in a season where time is tight, stress is high, and we do not have the capability to create, but other times, things just flow. The first step is to recognise where we are and do what we can today.
News! A new poetry collection!
I'm excited to announce that I'll be releasing a new collection of poetry in March. Many of these poems have been similarly stashed away for years. The working cover is above along with the working title, The Ways in Which We Are Like Birds, which I'm 99% sure about (but this could be subject to change!)
Over the years I have released various collections of poetry, the first in 2017, which was a collection of hand-lettered poems about motherhood called There You Are. Then in 2020, I released Voice at the Window: 100 gratitude poems written during Lockdown.
Since then, I have been crafting poems at a very slow pace. Writing poems takes time because so often the poems are explorations or responses to things that have happened in my life. They come when they will, and I can't control it. I have had the nagging sense that this collection is ready for a while now, and I am so looking forward to sharing it with you. The release date is going to be March 20th, because when better to release it than the first day of spring, the beginning of things?
The poem includes some of the poems from There You Are, some from Voice at the Window along with lots of brand-new poems.
Here is one of the poems from the book to give you a little taste:
Things the Summer Teaches
That as soon as it is here,
it is already thinking of leaving.
I haven’t even paused for thought,
haven’t truly felt the warmth of summer,
and already it starts to spin away.
Midsummer gets me every year.
‘Stay on and bloom,’ I plead, ‘Don’t leave.’
That the leaves will always fall,
no matter how tightly
I clutch summer to my chest.
That I can’t stop this world from turning,
however hard I dig my heels in.
That it won’t rest for tragedy, heartbreak, or despair,
but spins tirelessly on, drawing each day to itself,
filling its spool with the thread of the everyday.
That my children will outrun me, even the littlest,
that my job, after all of this, is just to let go.
That these four came like birds for the winter,
and are preening their wings on the wire again,
readying themselves for flight.
The collection will be launching on March 20th, the first day of spring and you will be able to preorder it soon - I’ll share the details as soon as I have them.
More news!
In other news, I have sent my second novel Christopher, Running to the editor and the cover is being designed as we speak! It is completely different from Murmuration, but as I realised when I was describing it to someone the other day, it also includes a static caravan and a long journey on foot. Perhaps I just have a thing for restless people! I’m very excited to share it with you - it will be coming out later this year. I’ll tell you more about Christopher, Running next week!
Thanks so much for reading Miners and please share it with anyone who you think may enjoy it too :)
Elisabeth
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