Lucy Newlyn

Lucy Newlyn

This thing

An anti-war protest ballad, prompted by the war in Ukraine

Poems for Gill and Chris, from QUICKSILVER

Poems for Gill and Chris, from QUICKSILVER

Two poems from my collection QUICKSILVER, written for my sister Gill and her husband Chris, musicians.

QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

My sixth collection of poems was published with Lapwing, a small poetry press based in Belfast which has been publishing both local and international poets for over twenty years. Most of the poems in Quicksilver are short lyrics, many written in fixed forms; but the book also contains 'Anima', a

'Nocturnal', a poem from QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

'Nocturnal', a poem from QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

'Nocturnal', a poem from my collection Quicksilver (Lapwing, Belfast 2022)

Two poems from QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

Poetry Featured

Two poems from QUICKSILVER (Lapwing, 2022)

Muse If I knew your name I’d whisper it to the trees. If I could see your face I’d touch it with my hands. If I could hear your voice I’d catch it with my tongue. If I could smell your body I’d keep it close

Line

A poem from my Primer in Verse (Yale University Press, 2021)

The Craft of Poetry

The Craft of Poetry

“How does poetry work? What should readers notice and look out for? Poet Lucy Newlyn demystifies the principles of the form, effortlessly illustrating key approaches and terms—all through her own original verse.”

Images

A selection of tiny poems, written in 2020

The summerhouse

The summerhouse

Written in the Spring of 2020, at Polcuta in the Roseland.

Northern Notes

Tiny poems prompted by memories of the Lake District

The bonfire

A sestina, for Karen Poskus

Ghost tree

A response to 'Resting on a shadow tree' by Jerry Downs

On a lighter note

On a lighter note

A compilation of light verse for Covid times...

Kernow

A group of tiny poems inspired by the Roseland

Reflections

A group of haiku inspired by the ponds at Polcuta

Polcuta

A selection of haiku written at Polcuta in Cornwall, spring -- summer 2020

The Questionnaires

The Questionnaires

An excerpt from Diary of a Bipolar Explorer, dealing with the charting of mood disorder in 2008.

The GP

A poem of homage to Ann McPherson, my GP for thirty years. (I published this first in the Oxford Magazine and later as the dedication to Diary of a Bipolar Explorer.)

Falling

With apologies to W.H. Auden, here’s a poem about Kate Newlyn’s sculpture, ‘Icarus’. I have a bronze resin cast of this on our wall at home. It is slightly different in some minor details from the image.

The Anxiety of Influence

The Anxiety of Influence

A pair of villanelles I wrote a while ago about the anxiety of influence...a concept which goes on fascinating me, even though I am long done with Harold Bloom.

French Windows

A poem about what happens to a room when the outside comes in.

Second Homes

An elegy for Robert Woof, Director of the Wordsworth Trust, who lived partly in Newcastle, partly in Grasmere. The poem’s setting is Portloe in Cornwall.

A Rebellion

An elegy for my first husband, Jonathan Wordsworth. The setting is St Catherine's College, Oxford.

Name-placing

A sonnet about place-names in Cornwall; first published in the Oxford Magazine.

Makers

A sequence of poems paying tribute to poets and singer-songwriters who have shaped my life.