by Helen Ivory | May 17, 2025 | Featured, Poetry
This poem was sparked by my own care experience and more recent indirect involvement. The poem itself does not require analysis, beyond what lay behind me writing it. Two years ago I was invited by Lemn Sissay to be part of a feature in The Observer at the...
by Helen Ivory | May 16, 2025 | Featured, Poetry
You Ask Me if I’ve Had a Nice Day Are these the words you want me to say about how my day became a raging river crashing through my bones? Its giant stones thumped my body like the fall of a hammer. Does that terrify you? Have you managed a day...
by Helen Ivory | May 15, 2025 | Featured, Poetry, Word & Image
We understand that some of you are having difficulty seeing the image properly. Try right clicking and saving it or opening in a new tab. Commentary: This poem is different from my usual visual work, which has several constellations or voices, and where...
by Helen Ivory | May 14, 2025 | Featured, Poetry
Living Flashback My room is infested with bedbugs I’m covered in bites, not love bites I have to spend the night on the low secure unit That I’ve only just been discharged from. The paranoid nurse who signs me in thinks I’ve been...
by Helen Ivory | May 11, 2025 | Featured, Poetry
on accident (for Adrienne Rich) I want to borrow gods (as Adrienne does, though she knew better) their sad logic their templates but there’s always a tell, no? a too close accuracy not confidently misremembered studied would you be disappointed...
by Helen Ivory | May 10, 2025 | Featured, Poetry
Coal House Fort Turn the mud. Bo Peep’s head tumbles out, wide-eyed, mouth a little open. There’s no sign of her body, her crook, her flock. Perhaps they’re deeper in the riverbed, or washed down to Tilbury by the tide. Drop her into the wooden...