En Route

En Route is launched at Keats House on Wednesday 23rd May

ADMISSION FREE: BOOK TICKETS HERE

Olivia Walwyn's pamphlet, En Route, is a winner of the Templar Portfolio Award

Grey Seal

The dark sonar of her eyes
and her nostrils flaring, resting
just above the waterline

breathing me in. In case
she cannot see me, detect my shape
in this brightness, I murmur

into her night sky beautiful
and she follows me, does she?
Flint shadow. Flamboyant

under water; inherent grace –
how your shadow’s always
far more supple than your form,

her flippers, knotted fingers,
fist on shore, opening to bloom
in trails – translucent kelp

reminding me of the way
my Grandmother would swim
each year, we said the year

she didn’t would be her last –
insistent – paddling down
the beach, in flowery hat.

From En Route by Olivia Walwyn

Olivia Walwyn was born in Norwich in 1983. She studied English and Philosophy at Durham University, and then went on to gain an MA in Political Philosophy (the Idea of Toleration) at the University of York. Following this, she qualified and worked as a school librarian. Most recently, she gained an MA in Creative Writing (Poetry) from the University of East Anglia.

Currently based in Macclesfield, Cheshire with her husband and daughter, she has always been engaged with the outdoors and environmental issues; a keen walker, she has also run at an international level.

ISBN 9781911132417