Growing up on a large council estate on the outskirts of Portsmouth, Maggie Sawkins began writing poetry at an early age, influenced by writers such as: Emily Dickinson, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, D H Lawrence, Hermann Hesse, William Blake. Being ‘good at English’ she embarked on a career as a secretary. She eventually returned to study English with Art at degree level and went on to gain an MA with distinction in creative writing. Maggie lives in Southsea with her husband, daughter and a variety of animals. For the past thirteen years she has worked at South Downs College where she now teaches students with learning difficulties. Her first poem was published in Hampshire Poets at the age of seventeen, but thinking it was a fluke, she didn’t try again until she was in her thirties. Since then she has had poems in Writing Women, Mslexia, Acumen, Magma and in many other magazines and anthologies. Her pamphlet Charcot’s Pet (Flarestack) received excellent reviews, and her first full collection, The Zig Zag Woman was published by Two Ravens Press in September 2007.

Quelle: poetry p f

Date Unknown

I will walk up a path
policed by poplars
the sky will be cloudless and blue.

In my hand an empty suitcase
scented with lavender,
swinging.

A patient will skitter past
in raincoat and scarlet slippers
and I’ll tip my head.

In front of a circle of lawn
and gothic fountain
will be a redbrick building

that could be a mansion but isn’t.
She’ll be leaning against
a glass doorway

with lightness in her hair
like a girl from a Hopper painting,
except she is smiling.

I will walk towards her,
take her bundle of clothes,
unbuckle her hands.

A doctor will appear
as if from nowhere to wish
her well.

As we turn to go faces will stare
from darkened windows,
flowers will curtsey

trees uproot themselves
sprout wings
and fly.

in collections: The Zig Zag Woman, 2007,
Two Ravens Press, ISBN 978-1-9061200-8-5