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Denise McSheehy received a major development bursary from ACE. In the last 12 months she won the poetry section Writers Inc, The Poetry Can and the Mirehouse/Words by the Water poetry competitions; also commended/anthologised in the Arvon International.
As a child I carved salt blocks
crumbly and resistant at the same time
the white piquant dust finding cracks in my skin.
I imagined the salt plains of Danakil,
the houses built of salt, the sun–
salt blocks valuable as gold.
Now gritty and particular in my hand
it has a flat glitter; there is glamour
in its vanishing trick.
I contemplate salt’s dark fierce heart,
fused gas and metal–split
to choke and burn.
Salt is dry; it makes my mouth run.
Poem published: Salt Prints, limited edition pamphlet, Jones Press (ed Gerard Woodward).
Publications:
Salt, Poetry Can, launch at Bristol Poetry Festival, September 2008.
Postcards (50p from Denise): The Measure of My Delight, Staple, New Writing; Soap, Poetry Nottingham International.
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