THE NEW LIVERPOOL POETS

My name is Susan Phillips and I'm a Liverpool poet (born and bred). I've been writing poetry since I was eight and am currently ending my second residency at Alder Hey as 'Poet in Residence'. I have had a couple of commissions - Alder Hey and the Mentoring and Befriending Association and performed the commissioned poems at their respective AGM's. (Both poems attached plus one other poem about Liverpool). I also write short stories and vignettes, one of which has been published, and am half way through a novel for children called 'The Great Scritchetty Quiggins Plot'. I am married to Stephen and have a four year old son called Jimi (after you know who).

I have worked all over the North West for the past 20 years teaching creative writing in millions of different settings including Walton Prison, a secure prison for young women in St Helens and on the Mersey Ferry!

Susan visits schools and provides INSET training for teachers and tailored training for other adults wanting to work creatively with children. She has also taught on PGCE courses and run creative writing extended courses in libraries across Merseyside.

Making Friends with Florrie

It was a rainy Tuesday when I arrived, late as usual at 1.45
“You were due at 1.30!” she snapped in disgust
And I knew without doubt that in Flo I could trust

She’d filled in the form from the befriending agent
“What I want from a friend? The terms of engagement?
Well for starters she’d better keep kids out my garden
She’d better be prompt or my arteries harden
I’d like copious tea, fit for Earl Grey himself
Can she bring round a duster, and rub down my shelves?”

I’d like to say Flo lived in council house splendour
All clean and pristine, though money was slender
But really her kitchen was dancing in grease
The grease of the years because Flo couldn’t see.

Her house wasn’t cosy or filled with the bits
That embarrass your children, have your grand kids in fits
But the tea was a constant, stewed and with sugar
We passed time and Nice biscuits till we knew one another.

She never said ‘please’ or ‘thank you’ or ‘sorry’
So you knew where you were
When visiting Florrie

Susan Phillips, 3 July 2005

_____________________________________

Pram Siamese

It's Saturday, noon, hot in July
And I'm pramming it down Bold Street, sweating
Wheels jamming in every crack

No-one likes that big wiry horse with enormous balls
But today it looks cool and inviting to the touch
A flecked Pegasus waiting for a burning cheek

I'm tempted to stop but see
Through the thick pink bodies
A boy who used to like me

Same look, assured,
The Liverpool musician’s way of walking.
So I try to catch his eye for reminiscence

But cannot

I remember what it was like to be visible
Before the four signifying wheels
Before becoming pram siamese.