Description

Winner of Hedgehog Press’ A slim volume (4) competition in 2022, is Karen’s debut poetry collection, to be published by Hedgehog in 2023.

This is essentially my homage to motherhood- because it is important and should empower women – not reduce them to invisibility. Mothers, generally, are the ones who hold things together within a family.

A mother’s shaping – the urgency of maternal drive, what nestles buried within the small print, lies here. The raw, changing tides of motherhood, seen as ever-evolving transformation, are reflected through narrative cycle and more universally.

Deep-seated longing for a child, when carrying to term seems endlessly thwarted, gives way to stomach-fluttering joy in new-borns. Bitingly acute fears, sometimes tiger-rage, when children are hurt, are forensically examined – through to the bitter-sweetness of their flight.

Once motherhood takes hold – there is no letting go. And in that clasp, all within the nest is held as safely as love can make it.