This week I’m trying something different and have recorded a conversation with my friend Fiona Theokritoff. Fiona is a poet and creative writing teacher. Her work has appeared in lots of journals including Mslexia, The Interpreter’s House, and Ink Sweat and Tears. She performs her work across Nottinghamshire with fellow poet, Jane Wyles. Together they are Wine and Words. Fiona’s latest book, New Uses for a Wand will be published by Five Leaves in June 2024.
In our conversation we talk about her journey into poetry, which began as way to cope after her husband died suddenly in 2009. Although she does mention that she wrote poems to him in the early years of their relationship, so the call to poetry was perhaps always there for her.
We discuss the therapeutic power of poetry in expressing deep emotions and how we often turn to poetry in times of emotional upheaval or celebration.
We talk about the techniques Fiona employs in teaching writing and the nuances of poetry creation, from writing with the senses and drawing on vivid memories to the importance of letting ideas mature.
And she gets me writing a poem. This was a new experience for me. While I have written poems in the past, and shared some of them in past posts, those poems came through me not from me. By that I mean I did not set out to write a poem and capture the essence of something. Those poems just poured out of me with no thought whatsoever and they were not edited at all. I wasn’t the writer, I was the pen.
Writing a poem with Fiona was an entirely different process. It was about capturing memories and the essence of experiences and bringing those together to paint a picture for the reader to be there with me. I read my work-in-progress poem at the end of the audio and you can also find it at the end of this post.
I don’t know if writing poetry will become a part of my regular creative practice, but I certainly had a lot of fun playing with it. I encourage you to give it a go. You might find there is a latent poet inside you just itching to come out!
Do enjoy our conversation and let me know if you like the audio post style. It is about 45 minutes long so a good one to listen to while cooking supper or taking some time out for yourself with a cuppa.
You can discover more about Fiona and her work here: www.fionatheokritoff.co.uk
Until next time… with love from my soul to yours
Bottling memories of mellow fruitfulness
Plump, simmered hedgerow fruits,
Ooze their juice, drip dropping,
Muslin stained purple,
Pooling in the bowl beneath.
Demi johns, blood red and gold
Quietly gurgle with joy,
On the shelves of my childhood,
Air heady with sweet, flowery fruitiness.
Decanting, a summer task
Test Match on the radio,
Click of ball on willow
Clink clink of bottles.
Cowslip was my favourite then.
I was raised on it,
A thimble at bedtime,
Comforting, sleepy sweet nectar.
I was ten when the meadows were ploughed,
Cowslips and wild orchids lost to the turned earth.
One day the cowslip wine ran out,
Lingering only as a memory.
I grew up on these tiny sips,
Now not a drop passes my lips.
Cordials and vinegars made instead,
The syrup of fruits and flowers.
Elderflower, raspberry, rose, the tastes of summer,
Elderberry, blackberry, spices, warming winteriness.
The baskets of berries, the boiling and bubbling, cooling,
Then bottling and waiting. Sometimes years.
In the old pantry, a dusty bottle biding its time,
Unnoticed behind a collection of whisky.
We only discovered it after dad died,
Although I’m sure he knew it was there.
Carrot 1965. The year of my birth.
A vintage year.
Playing with poetry