I have been basking in the glory that is the summer holidays, it has been wonderful. It’s enough time off to find yourself again, write a few poems and relax. I haven’t been very well during this time, but mum and I have worked around it as we always do.

One of the highlights of my summer was attending part of the Poetry Carousel at Abbot Hall Hotel in Grange over sands. I had workshops from the wonderful Clare Shaw and William Letford. Clare’s workshop was themed on natural disasters. It was an extremely interesting way to write, applying disasters to everyday emotional and physical struggles. With Billy we talked about Journalling. I journal every day. It helps with my recall and tells me what I need to do that day because I keep lists. It was very interesting to hear other people’s opinions on journalling, as for me it is essential. Some people kept one on and off. I don’t think I’d be able to function without my journal!

I went down to Devon on holiday with my family. We visited the beautiful city of Exeter and did some shopping. In the Waterstones I picked up a copy of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur. I had heard many good things about this collection – and I was not disappointed. It talks about the sexual abuse she suffered as a child, her sexual experiences in a relationship and her feelings after break up. She uses imagery that is so delicate and bold at the same time. One of my favourite, and perhaps not seen as hugely delicate, lines within the book was

“who tricked you

into believing

another person

was meant to complete you

when the most they do is complement”.

This has personally helped me a lot as I have recently broken up with my relatively short term boyfriend. It still hurt, maybe not as deeply as is if it had lasted longer, but that feeling was still there.

Anyway, back to Devon. My mum and I went on the train to Torquay. Trains and wheelchairs are a nightmare (even though we prebooked assistance that didn’t materialise!). Torquay itself was like being abroad. The promenade was absolutely stunning. It was above twenty eight degrees Celsius while we were there. At home it had been raining for three days straight. That night we got a phone call from our neighbour who was concerned about our lane flooding! Everything was fine though.

The last highlight of this holiday has been the Lakes Alive festival. I worked with the Poetry Takeaway (https://twitter.com/poetrytakeaway?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor ) during the day at Nobles Rest Park. It was one of the most amazing writing experiences I have ever had. I wrote twelve poems during my time there – in one afternoon! If anyone had said that was possible I would have laughed very hard in their face. I met such a huge variety of people and wrote a huge variety of poems. I wrote poems about Lego (requested twice in a row, oddly enough), friendships, holidays and running achievements – all made to order and within around twenty to thirty minutes. Working at the Poetry Takeaway really made me prioritise my time and editing – I usually spend endless hours on one poem. People were thrilled that you had written them a piece of poetry just for them – totally unique that no one else will ever get given.

In the evening I went and performed some poetry under the Moon, an art installation at the Poetry Festival by the artist Luke Jerram. It was an incredible experience. I read some moon related and some non moon related poetry. I couldn’t get over the detail of the moon installation. It was something I have never seen, and probably never will see again.

Thank you to Rob Fraser (www.somewhere-nowhere.com) for the photograph below.

I also got my AS results which I was very happy with 🙂