Janet worked in education for many years. Now retired, she’s working to develop her writing practice. Her first pamphlet, Under-hedge Dapple, was published by Three Drops Press in 2016.
Most recently, her work is included in Midnight Feasts (an anthology of food poems, collected by
A.F. Harrold’ (Bloomsbury Education 2019)
She’s a proud member of the TWP (Tees Women Poets) collective, as well as Saltburn Writers. She loves spoken word performance, especially mixed up with music. She was commended in the 2019 Prole Laureate competition and has a poem in the 2020 Eyewear anthology of Best New British and Irish Poets. Her latest pamphlet with The Black Light Engine Room press is out now.
I should be howling
(After Clive James – The Crying Need for Snow)
I listen
in the almost morning
light, as the sun throws
crimson at the
winter wind.
I should be howling
for the softness of ducks,
for the gold inside,
the blackbird’s eye,
for the darkness
of the hedgehog’s
vacant space,
for the silence
of the cuckoo’s call,
for the insane acts
that leave wet footprints
where grass slumps, and
clay cracks, slips
and sticks to claws,
feathering
the rising tide
with carcasses
of comfy junk
grown old and fat
on sea life.
I should be howling.
That would make sense.
Janet Philo