Indie Poetry Please!: Liezel Graham

Each week, I select a winning poem from the “Indie Poetry Please” feature on Instagram, which is announced here on my blog, and on the Self-Publishing Advice Podcast and Livestream from the Alliance of Independent Authors.

This week our winner is Liezel Graham, a poet and storyteller from Glasgow, Scotland, author of two collections Stripped and A Counting of Love.

Liezel says of her poetry: “I find beauty in the ordinary, then I tell of it”. Exactly right.

Here she tells of the beauty in a recent encounter: “when I was prayed for by a robin”.

when I was prayed for by a robin

when i stop by the tree at the edge of the loch

the afternoon sunny
and filled

with people

going about
living

none of them alive
to the bird on the branch

right in front of us

and

when i bend down
carefully
to put the weight of my life down

the robin

sees what i am doing

unhides himself
holy eyes shining

gives me

the perfect black diamond
of his wide open beak

perhaps
because he saw

my mouth
open
with awe, and me

hungry

for anything that tastes like beauty

a prophecy
perhaps

he feeds me a song

sets everything
on fire.
•
@Liezel_graham

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If you're a poet and would like to submit a poem for consideration, tag your poem with #indiepoetryplease. More details at OrnaRoss.com/submit

Thank you for reading and listening. I'll be back with more poems next week. Take care, until next time, may your lives be filled with poetry.

Orna Ross