Jean Watkins
Jean began writing poetry in 2002. Her poems have been
published in Mslexia, Magma, South and many anthologies. Her poem, Honeysuckle Sides, won third prize in The Sunday
Telegraph and Rose Theatre Kingston Poetry for Performance competition, judged by the then Poet Laureate, Andrew
Motion. Jean was short listed in the Poetry Business Book & Pamphlet Competition 2008/09.
Turning
She had thumped a lump of clay on her turning wheel,
centred it, dug in her thumbs to make a well.
Drawing the sides up and out between her hands
she had thinned and shaped its curve into a bowl.
The glaze was a swirling sea of mazarine blue
in fluid light from the staircase window.
When it fell it seemed suspended in the air
for seconds, minutes, before the shattering.
For seconds, minutes, before the shattering
when it fell it seemed suspended in the air.
In fluid light from the staircase window
the glaze was a swirling sea of mazarine blue.
She had thinned and shaped its curve into a bowl
drawing the sides up and out between her hands,
centred it, dug in her thumbs to make a well.
She had thumped a lump of clay on her turning wheel.
2nd Prize in the Havant Poetry Competition 2011
© Jean Watkins