Event
Big Day of Poetry - 9th October
Cramphorn Theatre, Chelmsford
Open Competition Judge

Bio

Born in Hertfordshire in 1972, Kathryn Simmonds worked in publishing before taking an MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia.   She graduated in 2002, and in the same year received an Eric Gregory Award from the Society of Authors. In 2004, Snug was a winner in the Poetry Business competition and was subsequently published by Smith/Doorstop.

Kathryn's collection Sunday at the Skin Laundrette (Seren), won the Forward prize for best first collection 2008 and was short-listed for the Costa Poetry Award. She lives in London and is a tutor at Morley College & The Poetry School.

Poem

My Darling, My Cliché

Don’t start what you can’t diminish.
A bird in the hand is worth nothing if it lies
stock still and won’t sing. You can lead
a horse to water but you can’t make it recite the rosary.
If I said you had a beautiful body would you.
This is our bed you have made for yourself.
Beware of old lovers bearing gifts. A rolling stone
gathers much loss. If you can’t say something nice
say something with gall (many a true word
was said in a vest at three am on a Wednesday night).
Why not begin afresh, put the past beside us,
forgive and beget. What the heart
hasn’t seen the eye doesn’t grieve for.
Please. It’s not over till the. Oh.