Suzy's BLOG - Suzy Rowland

Writ in Water

If you're ever on the M25 in the South of the UK, and you have 30 minutes to spare for a cup of tea, I highly recommend a stop off at the Magna Carter and the grounds surrounding it - including the National Trust tea-shoppe. For it is just a few hundred footsteps from...

Dexter McClean – from Concrete Jungle to Richmond Hills

Sometimes a photographic artist captures a place and the feel of a place so acutely, it's as if you are in conversation. This is how Dexter McClean's 'Tower Avenue' made me feel when I visited his first exhibition at London's Orlean's Gallery. The black and white...

Women’s LIK (laughs, Ideas, Knowledge) one year on!

https://youtu.be/S9FMZzzViQI It was great to present our 12th show with Sandra Ewers and Angela Barrows

Suzy chats Songs of My Soul at Black Cultural Archives

Book Sense – A poem for World Book Day 2020

Books have a smell of the stories they hold characters' struggles, triumphs, broken dreams other people's fingers turning the pages - smoke in their homes dried tears on the leaves a smell of ink long dry as unique to you, as your own story. © Suzy...

So, you love books?

Written for World Book Day 2020 Books have a smell of the stories they hold characters' struggles, triumphs broken dreams other peoples' fingers turning the pages smoke in their homes dried tears on the leaves a smell of ink long dry as unique as you, as your...

A Bitter Pill – poem from Songs of My Soul

I wrote this poem a few year's back, but it somehow seems prescient in terms of where we are now (in the midst of a global pandemic) and what we're all experiencing, albeit in different ways. Hope you find the positives in the words... (blooper follows as many of you...

Divine Shine

Divine Shine Hold up your eyes for I am the sun!the creator of all existence.hold open your heart for I am the sunthe maker of loving creationhealing, lighting vibrating your soulenlightening your thoughts, making you wholehold open your heart for I am the sunpulsing...

Windrush 48 – a poem by Suzy Rowland

To buy your limited edition copy of the Windrush 48 poem card, email hello@everywordcopywriting.co.uk

First & Last Dance – voice only

Music : Wayne Smith - 'Under Me Sleng Teng' Words: Suzy Rowland A young girl, seduced the the riddims of the Jamaican dance hall - we've all been there, right?! Enjoy 🙂 You can watch the video here... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjw7m-BKmQ8

Absent fathers draw near…

Dear Starbucks Dad, I hope you don’t feel shy or awkward about me writing to you in this way but this is just a small acknowledgement of your commitment to fatherhood. I don’t know what your personal circumstances are, so all I can comment on is what I see most...

You’re Jamaican, you love Bob Marley, right?

I grew up listening to Bob Marley’s music. In fact, I used to get a bit annoyed when people would expect me to like Bob Marley, because I’m black. In those far away days, Duran Duran and Teardrop Explodes were the tunes I was ‘jammin’ to! However, Bob’s music was...

Nighth of Sine, by Leopold Sedhar Senghor

Woman, put on my forehead your balsam hands, your hands softer than fur. Up there, the tall palm trees swinging in the night breeze rustle hardly. Not even the nurse’s song. Let the rhythmic silence rock us. Let’s listen to its song, let’s listen to the beating of our...

Mental health in Mind

My last post about PoetryAsHealing was a let 'me tell you what it's all about' kind of post. As we're nearing the end of the the year, I'm happy to tell with you that my PoetryAsHealing sessions have been a huge success. Working with MIND feels like a natural fit as...

PoetryAsHealing

Ok. I've been really slow at blogging about my PoetryAsHealing project. Partly because I've been so busy doing it. I'm passionate about poetry and mental well-being so I inhabit a sort of heaven when delivering this programme. PoetryAsHealing provides carers or people...

What to do if your writing’s great, but your marketing sucks!

Writing a book is a lonely business. The stereotypes are true, I mean, I've been sitting in my office since 8am, unshaven - I use that word figuratively - and I probably won't see another person until my son comes home from school. I watch people walking up and down...

Golden, fallen [POEM]

she trembled and fell / withered yet beautiful / wisdom in her veins / ground into the earth © Sukie Rose

World Mental Health Day – a whisper or a shout…

I woke up this morning and a bomb exploded in my head causing pink and white confetti to rain down. A confetti of ideas feels wonderful, dizzying, like there is too much to do and not enough life in which to do it. I have been dubbed a 'butterfly' as I flit from...

‘ART’

S.E.N.D in the Clowns: (VIDEO) my non-fiction project, I’d like to share it with you..

https://youtu.be/S5oZJGMYN70 I've been working on a non-fiction book for the last few years, bringing together my experience of being an autism mum, an educationalist by osmosis and a firm believer in the transformative power of education. Like many writers, we can be...

Spoken in the vernacular: Louise Bennett Speaks [VIDEO]

Susan Rigg loved language and poetry as a child and was amazed when she first heard poetry by Louise Bennett in the vernacular, it took her to another level. Hearing poetry spoken in Caribbean dialect that created an atmosphere and feeling that was unique. Scottish...

Message to Mars – flash fiction by Suzy Rowland

The sky turned blue as the MARSO, an official order from Mars Command, flashed across the sky: ‘Urgent request for water, supplies are running low.. Blink! Blink! Blink! MARSOs logged directly into the mainframe, so the operating team didn’t need to do anything but...

I am NO longer invisible [REVIEW/VIDEO- Gal-dem, Weekend Guardian]

https://youtu.be/cl4KxiRZRzE 'Sunday morning hot coffee and granola your pink cover jumps into my space, no bubble gum pencil thin barbie here by the Grace of our Lord, hot black talent with attitude (TWA), grins at me, a cover full of promise revolution in my bedroom...

The drunken master of insecurity [FLASH FICTION]

She felt like an imposter... 'Who do I think I am, calling myself a writer?' Where's the deal, the positive acclaim, cosy interviews on TV sofas headphones on, waiting in radio studios for the 'on air' button to glow red? This is my life! she whispered to herself...

Summer 2018 [INSTApoem]

So far, 2018 is turning into a mega Summer for heat and the extreme impacts of the heat, it will become one of those years that become fuzzy and pretty in your head if you let it. Save this summer, in the memory bank marked 'good times'. The light and heat of the sun...

Asperger’s [POEM]

Relentless pursuit of one goal One, goal. Pure focus ‘what? we can’t cross the river here let's build a bridge or a tunnel there must be a way!” An unbending line from here to my destination details to be written, recorded stored on plates, words, dates please don't...

The Wedding [Services]

For a poet - love, marriage and weddings are perhaps the most inspiring, romantic and universal subjects to write about. You can stay with the personal, but stray into the spiritual, global, life-affirming, existential. So it is with this in mind, that I thought I...

Doing it wrong/doing it right [CAREER]

Have you ever been in a job that's wrong for you, but you tell yourself it's right? When we don't listen to our instincts, the universe finds a way of EJECTING us, sometimes brutally, from a situation, so we can get back on track, back in alignment with our true...

Remembering Windrush 1948 [VIDEO]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M7psheDmk0E If you like this poem and would like to buy an A5 copy as a momento, copies are on sale at the Black Cultural Archives shop OR click here to purchase online. © Suzy Rowland-Rigg

Windrush 48; Spirit of Windrush

I was fortunate enough to attend the service at Westminster Abbey on 22 June to mark Windrush Day. Me and about 2,000 other folk. The steel band playing in the church by Shern Hall Methodist Youth Steel band, set the scene. The harmonic twang of pan never fails to...

SS EMPIRE WINDRUSH [Windrush Day poem]

Windrush 1948: Coming Home “London, is the place for me London, this lovely city You can go to France or America, India, Asia or Australia But you must come back, to London city.” (Calypso: Sung by Lord Kitchener) A leap into the unknown, hundreds of men, women,...

Poetry by Suzy Rowland on You Tube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsNHnqgpK54 I travelled to Birmingham to read poetry at Khembe's Return to Your Roots Festival and found myself strutting the catwalk in a fabulous hand-painted kaftan. I think they call it crafting for your art. It was surprising...

Songs of My Soul Reviews

“Thanks so much for making the journey over to the New Inn. I'm sorry you had to wait so long to get on, and perhaps felt because time was short you'd keep it to one poem. But I thought your performance of your Windrush poem had a tremendous impact, especially the...

Poetry Cafe at Hampton Hill Playhouse

I took this photo in 2014 when this modern theatre building in Hampton Hill was called the 'Playhouse'. Little did I know when I took the photo that I would be treading the boards there in the future, sharing spoken word poetry. Having a theatre so close to home is a...

Spoken Word at Teddington Theatre Club [Tickets SOLD OUT]

Hot on the heels of Khembe's Return to Your Roots, Suzy Rowland will be reading a few of my poems the local 'playhouse' Teddington Theatre Club on Friday 15th June. For full details and tickets, please click on the Facebook link or the Write Out Loud links below:...

Poet Suzy Rowland, returns to her ‘Brum’ roots [PRESS RELEASE]

Songs of my Soul is the debut poetry collection by British writer and poet Suzy Rowland Rigg. She will be sharing gems from her debut collection at Khembe’s Return to your Roots Festival on 5th & 6th May, in Birmingham. “It means such a lot to be sharing my...

Melanin Mind & Soul Reviews

It's always lovely to be featured on another platform. I will be treading a different stage next month, performing at Khembe's Return to Your Roots event in Birmingham. Khembe is a hardworking, inspirational and hugely talented lady. The tenacity and passion...

May poem: It’s dark outside

Bass music burns a fire in his soul drives darkness from salvation’s burning hole pulsing blood in reckless veins lonely beast escapes concrete cage. Music louder senses turned to low directionless wheels nowhere safe to go. Target slowly coming into view knife...

Return to your Roots 2018

Return to your Roots? If you haven't experienced it, you better look sharp and get your tickets as it's only four weeks away! Return to your Roots is delicious mix of natural hair workshops, with the fan-tab-u-lous Mz. Lady Lox from Atlanta, featured in the video,...

The Living Legend Initiative Project

Sometimes strange and beautiful things happen when you open yourself up to them. I popped into Brixton to see my books on the shelf in the Black Cultural Archive's bookshop, only to meet lots of lovely people who were keen to find out more about Songs of My Soul. This...

Black Cultural Archives

Some days just need to be recorded. Today was one of them, the day my book went on the shelves at the Black Cultural Archives bookshop. Oh yeah. Books on a shelf. In a shop. I will never forget the journey it took to get here. The many patient hours of writing,...

Memorising poetry – a piece of Gateau?

You've heard the one about the woman who ate a dictionary for breakfast? No, it's not rude, it's all about the love of words and the sounds of words. Honestly. I taught myself rudimentary Italian, with a bit of help from Google translate, so when I arrived in Venice,...

Swan Dreams in America

https://youtu.be/7h58rXzsNhU I love this campaign - everything about it makes my heart soar. Dance, emancipation, empowerment, gracefulness, photography, and the soundtrack by Pherrall Williams. I love dance, as a human expression. Of particular resonance is the way...

Maya Angelou – a tribute

https://youtu.be/zmj8YM3-BYg I have described, in a previous blog post, the influence of Maya's personality and poetry on my life and development as a young black woman growing up. If you missed it, you can read that post here..

The more, the Maya

https://youtu.be/ewvcTjTejZ4 'Describe impact of her words?/her work to my life../feelings of her readings!/lumps of unspoken words swelling my throat/her words articulated delivered/pricked my mind's unformed ideas/shook establishment from complacent chairs/held...

Thoughts on Motherhood

When my daughter turned 25, it got me thinking about all of the stages of motherhood and how it changes you. It's one of those 'milestone' birthdays and I found myself reminiscing about what I was doing at 25 and how I felt about life, as well as thinking about how...

Music & Poetry

Musicality and poetry have much in common - expressionism, perfectionism, mysticism. I happen to love both. I played piano until Grade 6 and would get lost in playing, I had to be asked to stop. My favourites to play were Mozart and Haydn, at best sweet and...

Design and flow

Creating poetry is a joy and an endeavour. Handing your carefully selected verses over to another to design as your book takes shape, is like handing over your child to a new childminder. Someone else is in charge, temporarily. If they are experienced, they will ask...

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