*Please note change of date*
Jacqueline is a poet, playwright and teacher. Recent collections are All My Mad Mothers, shortlisted for the 2017 T.S. Eliot prize and Dad, Remember You are Dead (2019), both from Nine Arches Press. A Bargain with the Light: Poems after Lee Miller (2017) and Veritas: Poems after Artemisia (2020) were published by Hercules Editions.
Her most recent play, The Noises was nominated for a Standing Ovation Award. One Hundred Lockdown Sonnets was published by Nine Arches Press in 2021.
She is a founder member of Poets for the Planet a teaches and mentors for The Poetry School.
Do also read Jacqueline’s Interview with FRP Member Graeme Ryan (Link)
Some examples of her work include:
Sonnet LIX 20th May 2020
‘Europe should brace for second wave’ says EU coronavirus Chief – The Guardian
Remember Brick Lane Sundays? Bagel bake,
garam masala, artisan baristas,
sellers of hip and vintage on the make,
the smell of weed, the Sunday lager drinkers,
trestle tables, strangers skin to skin,
the men who stood outside the curry houses
flaunting menus, beckoning you in,
how you walked by, assailed by choice?
Remember Shadwell station and the sight
of dealers on the corner, fried chicken round
the clock, the homeless begging late at night,
how you never liked the Overground?
Remember how you wished the world would change?
Remember when the trains were just the trains?
From ‘One Hundred Lockdown Sonnets’ 2021, Nine Arches Press
Triolet for a Good Father
For Robin Your Dad was a wounded trickster, master of the art of letting go
but you held on: father in the birthing room, baby in your arms,
making it new. My man at the cradle, heart-long, lullaby and glow,
your Dad was a wounded trickster, master of the art of letting go,
his pockets full of terror, rage and stones; how did you know
the way to grow a child, your pockets full of keys and charms?
Your Dad was a wounded trickster, master of the art of letting go
but you held on: father in the birthing room, baby in your arms.
From ‘Dad, Remember You are Dead’ 2019, Nine Arches Press