All posts by Karen

Publications

News

Karen’s work has been published in The Clearing Online literary magazine; www.theclearingonline.org and on The Island Review;  www.theislandreview.com www.facebook.com/theislandreview

The essay ‘The River at my Side’ about the changing nature of the River Kent is being published in ‘Caught by the River’ , http://www.caughtbytheriver.net weekend of 30th May.

An extract from The Gathering Tide appears in Volume 2 of The Backroad Journal published by Backroad Books. This literary journal contains short-form writing and poetry and is available from the bookshop at The London Review of Books:

The London Review of Books bookshop

14 Bury Place, London, WC1A 2JL

Tel: 020 7269 9030

A feature on the remote island of Oronsay, only passable by foot at low-tide is being published in July in Scottish Island Explorer. Looking at the landscape, Golden Eagles and paleolithic middens.

 

 

Non-Fiction

Writing

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                ‘I stood at the edge of the bay, looking out to where cloud shadows fell onto the immeasurable sands, colouring them deep Prussian blue and red ochre. The whole saltmarsh was silent, the kind of silence that hums in the ears, and it spread over the singing blue of a frozen morning. Then a redshank materialised from a channel close by and unfurled itself skywards, casting its singular ticking call into the sky. My cover was blown and the whole marsh knew I was there.’

Opening lines from ‘The Gathering Tide; A Journey around the Edgelands of Morecambe Bay’

Poetry

Writing

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The Helm

This wall walks the spine

of Helm Hill, contouring

its crags and valleys,

flanking the Iron Age ramparts

carved from the summit prow.

Walking in north-flung hail

dark forms materialise

like boats berthed in the lee

of a harbour wall.

Behind wild forelocks the

ponies eyes are still –

their breath blown soft, a lip

dropped lightly open. Tails kinked

like plaits unwound, trailing

the hoof-pocked half-white earth.

The cloud moves on, gifting me

the sun and moon –

two pale disks each

holding an equal weight of sky.

Night and day pivot from the tawny

fulcrum of a kestrel’s wings.

She hangs in air; divides the world.