If you’d like to be included in this slot, please get in touch: estherchilton@gmail.com. Poems can be up to 60 lines and prose 2000 words. If you’d like to add a short bio and photo, then great. All I ask is that there’s nothing offensive.
Many of you will have enjoyed reading Kevin Morris‘s poems, me included. So it’s a pleasure to have him as my guest this week. Over to you, Kevin:
In late 1997 I bought a flat in Upper Norwood, a suburb of greater London which derives it’s name from the Great North Wood, which used to cover much of the area. My home is directly opposite to a graveyard. I have walked through that place, passing by graves more times than I can shake a stick at. This has, no doubt greatly influenced much of my poetry, which has a focus on themes of mortality.
However, in late January of this year, the brevity of life hit me in the face in a very direct and shocking manner. Whilst at home I suffered a seizure. Several days later I had another seizure whilst walking in a local park with a friend. I was taken by ambulance to Croydon University Hospital where I suffered a further seizure, which led to my admission overnight and my discharge on the following morning with medication designed to prevent further seizures.
Several days after my discharge, I visited my family in Liverpool. Whilst in Liverpool I became confused and lost most of the movement in the right side of my body. I was admitted to hospital where I was diagnosed with a brain abscess, which led to an operation for it’s removal and a stay of some 6 weeks in the Walton Centre whilst I recovered.
Whilst in hospital, I occupied much of my time in writing poetry. Unsurprisingly given my brush with the Reaper, much of this dealt with the fragility of life, including the below poem, Birds Heard on a Hospital Ward:
“I heard birds in the hospital.
I thought their calls
Came to me through solid walls.
But the doctor said
The birds I heard were recorded sound.
Yet it was profound,
For when I am dead
There will be no sound to hear
Of birds or friends’ words.
I cast no shadow on the ward,
So will walk in sunshine
While there is time.”
Following my discharge from hospital, I determined to publish a collection of poems capturing my thoughts and feelings whilst in the Walton Centre. Hence “Passing Through: some thoughts on life and death” was born.
Links:
Passing Through: Some thoughts on life and death eBook : Morris, K : Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
Blog: https://kevinmorrispoet.com/
Twitter: https://x.com/drewdog2060_
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kevinmorrispoet
Esther Chilton 
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