Submissions are open for the 2024, Volume 6 Heroines Anthology for women. The theme is witchcraft.
Details here: (opens in new tab).
When there was no moon
After sitting on my balcony listening to the blackbird leading the dawn chorus, I wrote this poem in the early morning hours. I find birdsong soooooo joyous! It uplifts and gives me a sense of freedom.
I sit on the balcony, the moon
not shining in a miner's coal sky.
The birds must know something.
They sing with voices looped
around my breath's plume; pale –
a ghost, an albino wren; its beak
submerged in a lake. A blackbird
is a piccolo; your smooth hands
silkworms, spinning skeins on my
breasts. Your breath, a warm breeze
at the nape of my neck. The white
dove's wings are flutters in my chest
as I stargaze; I look for your heart.
I see your lips in the blackbird's
song. Your whispers beguile me,
is that so wrong?
©2023 Sarah Drury
On not knowing why I should temper my tongue
after Margaret Atwood
Her hands part the sea
like Moses, as my
fathers, teachers, lovers
restrain her wrists,
which are us, pulling
Chicken Wishbones after
Sunday lunch and hoping for
the courage to be transparent.
But now I am cold; I cower
from the indifference.
I am every cadaver
in the morgue and you have
that look, that side-eyed
condemnation.
Maybe I should plagiarise
the script for The Handmaid's Tale.
I put on a red cotton gown
and a white bonnet.
It makes no difference:
my pomegranate is seedless.
©2024 Sarah Drury
Three Romantic Poems
I would like to share my performance of three poems I have written. The recording was made at a spoken word event in North Lincolnshire called Speak Out Scunny. It is an open mic for poets, actors, writers, comedians, any form of spoken word.
Their Facebook Page is Speak Out Scunny and their Instagram profile is @speakoutscunny
The open mic is held at Cafe Indie, in Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, so if you are local and enjoy performing your (or others) work, pop along on the third Thursday of every month. Doors open at 6.30. Book your slot when you arrive, preferably before 7.15.
You can watch my performance Here:
1. 'I said to the moon, 'You know nothing''
2. 'Before I knew we were all God'
3. 'Lunar Aspects of Synastry'
Do you perform at open mic events? Enjoy sharing your poetry? Prose? Comedy? Monologue? I would love to hear about your work and events in the comments.
©2024 Sarah Drury
I said to the moon, ‘You know nothing’.
We stand at the shore,
our toes foam with blue ink.
I dive for oysters, my graceless feet
a mermaid’s tail.
I anoint your milky orbs with pearls.
Your eyes are moonstones,
smile, a crescent moon.
You are the lighthouse; I am a moth
attracted to your light.
I stutter constellations;
Cassiopeia trips over my tongue.
A Mirrorball of stars ricochets from
the sunburst of your song.
The sea makes screen prints;
sells them to tourists drinking tears
from champagne flutes.
They cling to glaciers;
carve ice sculptures of love lost.
Our skeletons are xylophones.
We play all the songs —
they are lifelines on our palms.
I do not believe in God,
but we kiss and the universe is ours.
We are stardust,
I write sonnets,
You sing psalms
©2024 Sarah Drury
Sarah Drury 