Thought I’d share a poem for #worldpoetryday. This is one that I wrote a few years ago about the way that we sometimes find ourselves living in close proximity to neighbours that we hardly know. This was when we lived down south in a tiny terrace with our two children. I had formed a collectionContinueContinue reading “Laundry, a poem for World Poetry Day”
Category Archives: There You Are
Writing about Type 1
I am a writer and I have written, pondered and grieved Type 1 a lot over the years. I write to process my emotions, I write around a subject when I don’t quite know what it is that I want to say. But the truth is that type 1 invaded our lives so thoroughly whenContinueContinue reading “Writing about Type 1”
Putting Your Work Out There: There You Are, 34 poems about Motherhood
Who are these crazy dreamers who plug away at something, for hour after hour on their own, believing that one day it will come to something? I am one of them, and although sometimes I feel deluded (!), I know that there is a quiet faith that my writing will see the light of dayContinueContinue reading “Putting Your Work Out There: There You Are, 34 poems about Motherhood”
There You Are – its here!
ITS HERE! My book of poems about motherhood that has been one year in the making has arrived! Order NOW and it will get to you in time for Christmas! Or order for a friend and I’ll ship it straight to them! I’ll also be selling these beauties at Condover craft fair on Saturday too.ContinueContinue reading “There You Are – its here!”
There You Are : its nearly here!
So excited that my book is nearly here! I have spent the past year hand lettering and illustrating a collection of 34 poems about motherhood. It will be arriving at the end of next week and *should* get to you for Christmas if you preorder! I will shout when they’ve arrived and they will beContinueContinue reading “There You Are : its nearly here!”
Type One
A poem about my daughter’s diagnosis with type one diabetes. This poem is in my book There You Are, a collection of 34 hand lettered and illustrated poems about motherhood. You can find it here.
For When We Don’t Know What is Coming: an unexpected diagnosis
We had just moved to the wilds of Shropshire, with a two-week old baby and two pre-schoolers, and everything was new. My husband was beginning to concentrate on his music full-time, and the two eldest children had just started in a new preschool. There was time for the dust to settle. But I still hadContinueContinue reading “For When We Don’t Know What is Coming: an unexpected diagnosis”
Trembling Heart
A poem about the night that my daughter was diagnosed with Type 1, back in 2013 when she was 2 and a half. I held you to me on the bed and smelt your hair, felt your lightness,as your father bustled in the darkness for your favourite things.We had been to the doctors thatContinueContinue reading “Trembling Heart”
Afterwards, a work in progress…
And breathe… first day back to school for the kids which means I finally have some time! Here is the latest work in progress. To be included in a book of poems that should be ready by Autumn 🤞 🙏xx #handlettering #poems #instapoetry #livecreatively #parenting EDIT: You can find the finished poem in There YouContinueContinue reading “Afterwards, a work in progress…”
Love Poem: Poetry prints by Little Bird Editions
My children exhaust me and bring me to the end of myself but they make me who I am and they were the ones who taught me to love. I have recently launched a collection of prints which are my own hand-letterings of some of my poems about the early years, when everything is aContinueContinue reading “Love Poem: Poetry prints by Little Bird Editions”
#56
They start at the bottom, Go a little way, Have us catch them. ‘Again’, they say, ‘A bit higher’ ‘Catch me!’ ‘Push me!’ We sledge at Inwood on steep grass banks. It lights up their eyes, Just as it surely did for us when we were young. And I realise that in so many waysContinueContinue reading “#56”
#52
We sit there and watch them, us five, as the sand martins dip and dive towards their home. The young wait at the door, their heads peeping out. Across the river from them, I sit with my young tribe And think how fast the time has gone, And how they have grown. These three beautiesContinueContinue reading “#52”
#43
It is the moments like this that you treasure when camping, that make it all worthwhile, The five-thirty wake up, And then, when you come outside, Like this, and you see the blue grey mist wrapping around the mountains, You see the light of dawn come blazing through, Like pure gold, And even though youContinueContinue reading “#43”
#13
Sometimes I want it to go on forever: this exhaustion in the summer evening, this ache in my belly of love for these little people who need me. The thought of them growing up is too painful to think about just now. Let’s pretend you will always come and sit on my lap for cuddles,ContinueContinue reading “#13”
#12
I forgot to write yesterday, too busy with these little ones who bring me so much joy, who make my back ache and who have taught me to love.
#11
It is times like these where the sun is kind in the morning, where it kisses your skin with sweetness, where your toes are damp from the morning dew, where the world just here is happy to be alive- these birds, these buzzing flies, these trees. Thankful is how I feel this morning, humbled toContinueContinue reading “#11”
#9
You should have seen it today, a thousand raindrops battering on the Tarmac and shivering the leaves of the trees, making them louder, louder. I held my Benjamin at the open window, his eyes lit with wonder. You should have heard it tonight, here in our front room, the clatter and din of the churchContinueContinue reading “#9”
Crying in Public Places
This time it is me again, in a room of friends or a room of strangers. At the door of my son’s preschool when he shouts ‘don’t like preschool’ the whole way there, and leaps from the buggy board and runs off down the road, and I hand him over, howling and I have toContinueContinue reading “Crying in Public Places”
Charterhouse
And what have I loved the most, this weekend? Walking out of the wedding speeches to see lovely Charterhouse at dusk, where the children ran and ran across the cricket green, their bare feet upon the wet lawn. And then today, on the blowy beach with blue-grey clouds on the horizon, where we paddled gingerlyContinueContinue reading “Charterhouse”
A walk near Shere
‘Big, big muddy puddle!’ Sam said, over and over and he jumped in them until his shoes were wet through. Hail fell around us and the sky turned dark, but it felt good to be outside, even still. EDIT: This poem was eventually made into a poetry print. You can find it here. It alsoContinueContinue reading “A walk near Shere”
Moment
28th March A moment to myself while they sleep upstairs. Conversations from outside float through the window, a plane drones in the sky. I sit still and listen to the brush of sandpaper on a window frame, the slam of a car door, the call of an unknown bird. It is these little things thatContinueContinue reading “Moment”
elisabeth pike 