Susan Andrews
Featured Poet

Susan Andrews

Winner of our Top 5 Poets of March 2004 Online Competition

I’m 31 and live near Skegness, on the east coast of England.

I have only been writing poetry for 18 months, this coincided with the birth of my beautiful baby girl, and studying ‘A’ level English Lit, where I was introduced to Sylvia Plath and Four Women Poets, the two combined helped me to re-discover my inner emotions and the ability to put them down on paper in a way that could truly express how I felt.

I have always been a keen artist, (since my early years) and I include this knowledge quite often in my poems regarding nature, of which I also hold a great love for.

I tend also to be a bit of a dreamer and I lose myself when writing my fantasy verses, I enjoy writing these the most as they take me away from the harsh realities of the real world.

‘Writer’s Block’, winning Top 5 Poem for March is my first real achievement, I have had some work published by Forward Press, but to me this far surpasses that and has given me confidence to continue on in my work.

I have tried to choose a varied selection of poems to display, as I do tend to write in so many different ways although I try to keep my imagery strong and consistent throughout all of my work.

I hope you enjoy reading my work as it is always a great pleasure to write.

Writer's Block

Bright bold colours fade
From primary to pastel,
Washes bleed into a dirty
Grey, words weaken, diluting
Into a melancholy nothing;
Imagination locked away
Four walls filtering your
Thoughts;
Blindfolded and handcuffed
By a powerful void, drowning
In solitary confinement;
Forced words gouging at paper
Like a charcoal knife, you cut-
Ripping and tearing to erase
The insignificant words that
Appear, spitting out at you
Like an enemy, foreign language;
With expectations extinguished
You freefall... spiralling further
And further no splinter of hope
To cling to as you plunge into
A maddening nonentity, your
Lost soul cadged within itself
Your psyche your prison-
Damned forever in the womb
Of writers block;

Ivory black clouds roll
Curling back into themselves,
Payne’s grey and cobalt blue
Retreat, parting like the Dead Sea;
Pthtalo and Prussian miasma disperse
Revealing ochre rays that break through
The darkest of days;
The once sombre mood with suffocating
Atmosphere bows out at its grand finale
And the sounds of an orchestral heaven play,
Shadows evaporate and the trees of burnt umber
Rejoice in their autumnal sienna display,
Vermillion leaves and red ochre foliage
Crimsons, violet and rose madder pink
Exude their true colour once more;
Grasses tall of olive green reflect the new sky
With it’s ochre wash, fringing rivers of cerulean
That now runs free in celebration of a new day.

Susan Andrews
4th February 2004

With You Always

She quietly sings to herself
A sad sad song
Looking up to the moon,
Alone
She has nowhere to belong.
She strokes her pale milk skin
Soothing, smoothing as her
Lover’s touch…
Once did
A warm and single tear falls
A silver trail in the moonlights smile,
Her hair, spun silk of gold, cascades
Caressing her naked shoulders and laying
Like a moonlit pool, on her heavy sighing breasts;
Ebony eyelashes now sodden
As she remembers yesterday’s love,
Tears like ancient rivers that run,
Take her to a happier day.
Grasping his flower, still warm
From his touch he whispered her name,
‘I love you so much’
The cooling night air
Brought a chill to her thoughts so
The moon shone brighter to comfort them,
She smiled a heavy smile
In remembrance…
And as she drifts into the suffocating
Darkness
She sees him sitting there still,
Weeping at her grave

Susan Andrews
21st February 2004

The Snow Queen

Winter looms,
And expectant snow filled clouds
Reign the sky,
Threatening to explode
And spill their magic
Over forests, cold
And naked,
Mother Nature sleeps,
As midnight calls
The land of fae
To wake,
The Snow Queen rises
With the moon
And casts her spell on all,
In abeyance to her wish
The snow begins to fall,
Virgin flakes of
Crystal ice
Envelops the earth below
Like an enchanted kiss
From the Snow Queen,
Her breath
The purest snow.

Susan Andrews
8th October 2003

The Snow Queen (Part 2)

Frost bitten face
Transparent blue,
With a bewitching smile
To spellbind you,
Her icicle fingers
Cold and sharp,
One beckoning finger
Could pierce your heart.
Nocturne lulls you
And hypnotised
You go to her,
Her nitrate whispers
Echo,
Freezing you into
A cryogenic sleep.

Susan Andrews
12th October 2003

Nature in All its Glory

Walking under the
Conifers canopies, I became insignificant and small
As I stood against them
Standing tall and vanishing into the dense mists
Of February that bathed in cheddars valley.
Trees stood exposed, worn by winter's ice cold breath,
Their cloaks fallen, naked, baring the conditions
With awe inspiring strength as they lift
Their brittle branches, wintry and light, in prayer;
Cliffs of karst limestone cut deep in to the hills
Of antiquated earth, jagged rocks that jut
Giving meagre accommodation to wild thyme
And yellow wart, calcareous grasses of olive
And ochre sweep joyously over hostile chalky
Planes, giving bursts of reddened lilac from
Greater knapweed and clustered bellflower;
Creeping ivy stalks amongst the bracken,
Taking control of the shady undergrowth
Battling for control against the deep comforting
Mosses of viridian green, her softness like a blanket
Shielding each stone from the bitter winds that whistle
Through the Wookey caves and across the moorland;
The liquid song of the skylark pours from the sky
As he hangs motionlessly above then swoops,
Evaporating into the murkiness of the grey horizon;
A rare beauty exists here, each life is challenged
Yet survives in the austerity of prehistoric earth
And like Catherine running free on the moors
I have found true meaning, true love.

Susan Andrews
16th February 2004

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