SARAH CONNOR

Welcome back to SHINE, and thanks for stopping by! You'll be glad you did, as this month's featured poet is the lovely Sarah Connor, whose evocative poetry is sure to resonate. Sarah extends her gratitude to Annick Meyer of Sidhe Press who put together her recent book, Always Fire. All proceeds for the book are going to North Devon Hospice. You can learn more in Sarah's bio (below). Please enjoy two poems from the collection: "I Went to the Sea" and "This Doesn't Feel Like Home Yet." Thank you, Sarah, for sharing your words!

I Went to the Sea

I took it all with me
the grief and the anger and the fear
and she took it
like she takes all our shit
and she smoothed it
the way she might smooth a stone or a piece of glass
and she cradled me
the way a mother might cradle a frightened child
and her pulse
was my pulse

and I left with it all
the grief and the anger and the fear
a little smoother now
a little easier to carry

This Doesn't Feel Like Home Yet

This
Doesn't feel like home yet,
but it could.

You know,
a bed is a bed,
a bowl is a bowl.
Your daughter's hungry
but you cannot feed her --
your son is crying
and you cannot comfort him.

A bird sings,
but you don't know the notes,
this window opens
onto streets you cannot name
and words you can't decipher.

And home is
a key
on a string
against your skin.

Sarah Connor was brought up in South Yorkshire and now lives in North Devon. She has been published in numerous publications including Spelt magazine, The Storms, and anthologies from Black Bough Poetry, Experiments in Literature, and Sidhe Press. Her books are:  Always Fire, The Crow Gods, and The Poet Spells Her Name. You can follow her on Twitter: @sacosw.
Sarah has been living with breast cancer for the last 16 years, and is donating all proceeds from her book Always Fire (Sidhe Press, 2024) to her local hospice. To purchase a copy of Always Fire, please click here.

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