He led the wayAnd wherever he goes, you follow.You joined the line behind him on his first day,(Indignant when we gently told you no, you couldn’t go.Don’t be in a rush, your time will come,and soon enough).And when I let go of his hand,I still had yours to hold,My littlest.You filled the house with noise […]
poetry
The World Outside Your Window
Spring had just begun When they pressed pause and the world stopped. No school, no clubs, no to-ing and fro-ing. Instead – Board games, bike rides, bare feet, Dandelion and daisy chains. Every thing slow ed down. Not knowing for how long this would go on. Rainbows on windows Friends and family on screens (oh, […]
Metamorphosis
A poem about becoming a mother In the moment you arrived and your cry echoed through my heart I became someone new. A different version of myself as if I’d stepped from a cocoon. Still the same but changed. So deep deep in love, exhausted, transformed, in awe and terrified. A mother. Still […]
Lucky
Parenthood poetry I woke tired and grumpy today after a night with an unsettled little and a lie-in that was broken up by prodding fingers and shouts and shrieks. I went outside to the garden, cradling a cup of tea drank in some sunshine, picked the last of the sweetpeas, took a few moments […]
A Big Step
When they placed you on my chest and I smiled and said, “Oh, it’s you”, as if I already knew the corners of your face, this day felt so very far away. Baby days spent in a bubble with toddler days stretched out ahead – fort-building, slow toddler-paced walks outdoors, and afternoons curled up in […]
Now You’re Two
You’re two. I look at you and wonder when you changed and how you grew so much before my eyes. I didn’t notice the small changes day by day – it took me by surprise. Suddenly – overnight, or so it seems – you are a little girl with a personality so big and a […]
My Lap is Always Your Chair
The walls will change And the rooms and the doors, Yes, things may look different But it will be as before. Walls are just walls. A house isn’t a home when you take it apart When it’s empty of everything It’s missing its heart. When we pack up the books, the hand prints and frames […]
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These Days
There are days when it feels like I’m swimming upstream, Or treading water just to keep afloat. Hit by waves of guilt For having to split myself in two. And I feel like I’m sinking under the weight of all there is to do. The hard days, the long days, the days when I’m fuelled […]
Now She’s One
A year now. Days that have passed in a blink; like the pages of a book left open in the wind. I cling to the here-and-now, before it’s another do-you-remember-when. Now she is one and he is three. The nights are long but I know this time is brief and oh-so-precious, and I try, in the […]
The boy in the cottage at the top of the track
This poem was written to read to you, Isaac, in the style of the poems that really light up your little face at the moment. And the lovely Helen at All At Sea is going to illustrate a copy so I can give it to you for your 1st birthday. I hope you like it […]