Maggie Mackay loves family history which she winds into poems published in print and online journals. One of her poems is included in the award-winning #MeToo anthology. Others have been nominated for The Forward Prize, Best Single Poem with one commended in the Mothers’ Milk Writing Prize. More recently, her poem about George Eliot has appeared in the Yaffle Press celebration anthology and another is forthcoming in Bloody Amazing from Beautiful Dragons Press. Her pamphlet ‘The Heart of the Run’ is published by Picaroon Poetry. Her full collection ‘A West Coast Psalter’ will come out in early 2021. She is a reviewer for https://www.sphinxreview.co.uk/.
Twitter: @Bonniedreamer
Bowing to the Water
Willow, the short-lived veteran,
peels like sunburnt skin
thinned and shelled.
Bowed, the tree charts
river courses and mill lades
on the Floss and at Juniper Green,
dancing on sunlit breezes.
It is the stuff of tepee, pliant
like soft sand after rain,
a phoenix rising from the earth
stronger reborn, nectar rich.
Planted in withy beds
it is the stuff of living sculptures,
of baskets, domes, tunnels
fishing nets, wattle fences.
Maggie Mackay
