Image: Pierre Bonnard  – Young Woman Writing (1908)

Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon lives in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. She writes short stories and poetry. She has been widely published in web magazines and print anthologies. She was Highly Commended in the Blue Nib Chapbook Competition [Spring 2018], won the Hedgehog Press Poetry Competition ‘Songs to Learn and Sing’ [August 2018] and was shortlisted for the Neatly Folded Paper Pamphlet Competition, Hedgehog Press [October 2018]. In 2017 she graduated with an MA in Creative Writing from Newcastle University and she is now developing practice as a creative writing facilitator with hard to reach groups. She believes everyone’s voice counts.

This poem was also featured in Issue Two of Porridge, available for purchase here.

Strayed

I stray with the word,
the last word I heard
digs down, cracks my mind
open, fracks the shale.

I won’t submit to this,
and make another wish,
glance at chanced release
into the morning that expands
without warning into sunlight.

The day started grey,
worrisome and misty. Now,
rays flash on Broca’s lightbulb
and tentative, I write again:
mad words, sad words,
until at last, the right words
to tell my story.