Margaret‘s 1st poetry collection ‘Fording The Stream’ appeared Sept 2017 under the pen name Jessica De Guyat.
She was shortlisted for the Bangor Literary Festival and Crowvus poetry prizes in 2018 and her poems have appeared online, in journals and anthologies, most recently Hedgehog Poetry Press, The Blue Nib, Impspired and forthcoming in Sarasvati.
May 2020 saw the publication of her memoir of childhood ‘The Road to Cleethorpes Pier,’ a Haibun fusion of prose and poetry.
In July 2020 she won Hedgehog Press’ Full Fat collection competition and ‘Where Flora Sings,’ was published November 2020.
Margaret leads a women’s poetry group in Nottinghamshire and performs regularly at open mic events in person and online.
PILGRIMAGE TO A FAVOURITE TREE
I cherish our unspoken friendship. We do not need words, we are as one soul Your sturdy trunk has multiple offshoots, swathed in trailing ivy braid Solid branches reach up skywards, towards pure light, sense of place so strong As I run my hands across your rough, tough gnarled bark I hear sweet birdsong Friend, you have stood here for many a year, and will be here when I’m gone Generations will pass you by, yet sadly not love you as I do. As April rain falls sap rises green in your veins Majestic you rise.
GAIA’S GLORY
With homage to Gerard Manley Hopkins
Give praise for Earth’s amazing artistry;
Field, forest, fjord fanned like rainbow runes.
For creatures soft-striped, spotted, finned and winged,
Fresh-fallen nuts a-plenty, swallows in flight.
Meadows moody and mellow - cow-licked or clover-filled.
And country artisans, equipped with craftsmen’s gear…
All that delights and puzzles, seeks to please,
Whatever strikes the ears and eyes (a myriad things)
So fast, free, furious, fickle, alive and bright -
She nurtures us, Earth Mother beyond compare,
Praise her!
Solstice Sunrise Viewed from Inside a Henge
No torches velvet darkness dominates
black as molasses impenetrable
We sit crouched inside the henge
waiting
waiting
focused solely on reclaiming the light
We hold our breath watching
hearts thumping rhythmically
like jungle drums down a distant path
And then a long-awaited miracle
through a slant opening the first glimmer
of effulgence in all its power
Moment by moment the radiance grows
accelerating stretching out
touching shivering fingertips
It is as though sky and earth are one
Silence We are struck dumb
this unfathomable miracle
cloaks us in Solstice magicke
impspired 