Ira Lightman makes public art in the North East (the Spennymoor Letters, the Prudhoe Glade, the Gatesheads) and lately Willenhall and Southampton. He devises visual poetry forms and then asks local communities to supply words that will bring them alive. He is a regular on BBC Radio 3′s The Verb. Find out more here and here.
The Night Lisa Riley got knocked out of ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ 2012
Mum is glued to the I player where Lisa’s
rumba sweeps the glassy floor.
We fear the judges want to vote her out.
Ann hangs lights on the tree; tiny glass
moments , then snowflakes and birds; each one
unfolds our history in its own.
The TV shows photos of Sandy Hook
School which will shape the way
we hang this December. A peacock
butterfly falls open on our hearth,
soft as a rainbow resting on sky
forced to live through its own dying.
Mum finds a shoe box . On the I player tears
shine on Lisa’s face. This is the pure Christmas
intensity, the pulse of Led lights.
The glow that we survived .
Helen Kay comes from Cheshire. She has been busy filling up her memory stick with verse including loads of poems about chickens. Following successes in minor poetry competitions, she has made a New Year’s resolution to seek publication.