Three poems by Elspeth Wilson
Regal Gorse punches out the winter, leaving it dazed and glowing on the crags as the yellow spreads like a rash over rock and bog. It encases narrow pathways, creating bowers of gold, turning hikes to catwalks as spawn sits like jelly for a children’s party in the murky pond. As the tadpoles begin to eat one another, the jaundice starts to fade, to be taken over by Ribena coloured buddleia but it knows that it took the crown.
Turning Mum's sunflowers stopped turning when the dog died and dad drank non-alcoholic beer seven days a week. You can plant a garden but you can't make it grow, can't make anything face something it doesn't want to, even if that thing is good for it, even if that thing is life itself
Wasp It's true that they can hurt, especially when surprised, especially when caught in a glass or down a top or a pair of pants. It's true that it helps to carry a weapon on your person - it's true that we are taught self- defence. But just like an insect with a sting, we’ll get blamed for using what defences nature gave us
Listen to Elspeth reading ‘Turning’, ‘Regal’ and ‘Wasp’:
How I write – by Elspeth Wilson
“When I’m out and about – whether that’s in my garden, in a park or on a busy street – I’m always noticing small details about the lives going on around me, both human and non-human. I try to write these details down in the notes app in my phone, pretty much straight away, otherwise I forget about them. Then later I return to them and sometimes they grow into something new and unexpected: that’s what happened with these three poems.
“I took details that I’d observed – like the way the gorse turned the hills near me golden and how the buddleia was the same colour as the Ribena my grandad used to give me – and used them to free-write. In this way, the poems arose much as plants and insects do themselves; unpredictably, organically, intertwined with humans and the built environment.
“For me, the landscape and non-human animals form a crucial part of both my creative process and how I think and write about the world. These three poems are part of the debut collection I’ve been working on which explores what it means to be in a certain body in the natural world, seeking to find a home in a particular environment.”
Elspeth Wilson is a writer and poet who is interested in exploring the limitations and possibilities of the body through writing, as well as writing about joy and happiness from a marginalised perspective. Her writing has been shortlisted for Canongate’s Nan Shepherd Prize and Penguin’s Write Now scheme. She is currently working on her first collection. She can usually be found in or near the sea.
Elspeth Wilson.
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