For Elle

I never treat myself. You've told me. But when I do, I hunt for pennies, Stretched across weeks and months, Without ease. Then I surprise you. You show me. A life among millions, A wealth without numbers, Shrunk into words and lines, Like these. (Image: 'Long Runs the Fox', Dermot McConaghy, Belfast. Photo credit uncertain).

For Elle

If now you only remember, Making an effort, Trying to be yourself, Then the person closest, Has made you yourself. If you only remember, To make this effort, Say to them now, That person closest, "I'm not me without you".

Linenhall Library Writers’ Forum, my oldest’s writing bug and a library turtle poem…

I was telling my kids about a visit with my beloved to the wonderful Linenhall Library, where we heard new writing read by Glenn Patterson and Sinéad Morrissey.  Glenn's words were, of course, highly skilled and dripping with talent. A master craftsman. Doing justice to Sinéad's poetry remains beyond my vocabulary. The best I can …

By my oldest

My oldest (7) said she "wanted to do some writing for my website too". I should sign her up on a 50-year contract as a copywriter!...

Waking to great writing

What better way to start the day...

For Elle…

(With apologies to Tyler Knott Gregson) I always wondered how some people Move with an absolute but quiet confidence; Invincible, elevated, solid. Now that I am a them, I realise they must have had a you. And move not as one, But two.