Emley Walk
Trouser mud splats track our epic walk.
Ancient lines scar the landscape, invade our souls.
We trudge.
Size 5 Wellies and paw prints scatter field mice, voles, birds
Into the bleach boned bamboo stalks; ghosts of fertile summers gone.
Drizzle, staved off by light wind drives us to the copse where
Stepping stones, water covered, firm to the foot, offer crossings of hope
Away from the space where the bench used to be.
Now gone.
Stolen
By tyre tracks that left, instead of soft grass covered in autumnal leaves, mire.
Peeing in tandem, me by the hide hunkering down beside low slit windows, peering at the dry inside
She, behind a tree, lightening split, deep fissure of black against a bruised sky.
We are like dogs, free in the wild places to scent and
Push our way through mini-landscapes contrived by men.
Wood-cutters,
Bird Hide Builders,
Plougher’s of soil,
Brook bound stone-masons,
Dwellers of bamboo forests and
Cemetery keepers of
The crow.
Head smashed and broken, its scent on
The puppy as she rubs hard the black, greasy feathers into her face.
Ancient pathway.
Keeper of secrets and dreams where poison resides to create internal weather.
It imprisons us.
Wind blows through mind, space and time as we tread and create our mud splat map.
‘Do you feel old?’ she asks.
We pass ancient oaks, craggy dark lined memories stare back at me.
‘No’ I said. ‘But sometimes I feel broken.’
Wakefield 30.08.2014
Sarah Leah Cobham first started writing poetry as a child. Notebooks full of ideas still scatter her library shelves and she remembers missing huge chunks of her more formal education as she scribbled poetry and prose rather than taking notes in class.
Born and bought up in Australia but settled in Yorkshire, Sarah is deeply influenced by her experiences of other cultures, the natural world and by the people she meets. Her style is observational and reflective, is full of stories and is a platform for the woman’s voice.
Sarah did her first degree at Teesside University and went onto Oxford to gain her teaching qualification. Teaching English for 22 years gave her an excellent grounding for her writing. Now a poet, writer and public speaker, she specialises in The Woman’s Voice and is based at the Well Women Centre in Wakefield where she will be the Writer in Residence from 2015. Delivering empowering workshops to women in prison and asylum seekers across the Wakefield district, Sarah is a Creative Partner with Wakefield Council and runs support groups for women every week as part of Creative Dreamtime, her own business established for 17 years.
Sarah is also heavily involved with the Wakefield Literature Festival, and writes a blog called Unspoken Georgian which deals with issues women face in the Republic of Georgia. She sings Georgian music as part of her choir Samzeo and has, in the past, organised whole UK tours for visiting Georgian singers and artists.
Da Terre a Terre, the Twinning Goes on
Da Terre a Terre
30/8/2014 Wakefield Library, Wakefield One
The Wakefield Poets
John I. Clarke:
Each translation is a new creation
I Figli di Mondovì
Poets from the World
Jimmy Andrex:
Poetry is the Idea of Something Coming into Being out of Nothing