So I’ve been very quiet but I am finally rearing my head to tell you about our poetry collective Little Grape Jelly, formed of myself, Lily Ashley and James Massiah. On 12th July 2016 Lily sent James and I an email with the words ‘Hell-p Me’ as the subject line and we’ve since been sending each other emails in free verse and other poetic forms. We barely knew each other but have established a connection online and through a shaky email thread we have created a group diary, documenting three very different worlds. In June we published our collection Hell-p Me with Eyewear which you can check out/BUY here. Here’s a little taster – one of my poems from the collection….
From: Grace Pilkington
Sent: 14 March 2017 14:17
To: Lily Ashley
Cc: James Massiah
Subject: Re: Hell-p me
Yes – they are not better, purer, more on top of it and less confused,
They’ve only had longer on here; more time to get cut and bruised.
I’ve laid expectations like a chicken lays eggs, they pop out everywhere,
I don’t even notice, they come out so quick – one here, two over there.
Like eggs, they’re fragile, easily cracked and rarely hatch,
Sometimes I’ll chuck them up high and scream ‘CATCH!’
They’ll go spinning through the air and land on the floor with a crack and a smash,
where I’ll be waiting, one hand on hip, the other with a whip ready for the backlash.
‘How could this happen?’ I’ll say, staring glumly at the mess.
‘Who is responsible, come on you – it’s your fault, confess!’
Why did you have to let me down?
Why couldn’t you just let me throw you around,
Imagine you were real and coming to fruition,
Why did you put ME in this awkward position?
But the truth is, it wouldn’t have cracked had I not thrown it up high,
Had I not taken it everywhere and let it become the apple of my eye.
If I’d just laid an expectation and then walked casually away,
without clenching my fists with anticipation day after day,
then there’s a chance it might have actually been okay.
If I could only say,
it’s nothing to do with me,
it is after all a separate entity,
Then perhaps I’d be the kind of person I aimed to be, at the beginning of this verse,
Who talks about the bright sky and the warm duvet air – someone accurate and terse
But very sadly,
I went off on
some weird egg analogy.
