Life After Death - BiB Fresh Voice contender

Helen writes at All at sea Scotland and is another of our BiB Fresh Voice contenders. Since starting her blog she has focused more on her poetry, here she shares a beautiful poem Life after Death, a subject that we all think about every now and then

You were a writer I believe,
books and letters kept for years,
birthday cards and diaries and date and time and year.

And inside paper sleeves,
“To Miss Ellie, Happy Birthday 1983”,
people tell me there is much of you they see in me.

And how I wish that you were here,
fit and well with time to read,
words and thoughts and verse and stories pouring out of me.

And from where on earth?
It seems to me I found my voice the very day you left,
woke up, stood up, straightened up and looked for something else.

Life after death.

And how can I say loss?
When you have left me something I had very near forgot,
lost and drowned and watered down and lately all but gone.

My voice.
My hopes, my thoughts,
minds-eye, daydream, storybook and song.

A place to go,
space and page where words belong,
friends whom I could never have begun to think I’d know.

And I’ve learnt more of love,
in this last year since you have left than all the years before,
life and death and what is never really ours to hold.

We rent in life – we do not own.

So 90 years old,
days lived well and journeys told,
when you left me here I wonder did you always know?

You closed your eyes and went to sleep and that’s the day I woke.

Helen Braid is a graphic designer with 2 young children who is lucky to live on the beautiful Scottish West Coast. She designs and makes jewellery and writes at allatseascotland

Helen has a love of poetry, and finding her voice – via blogging – has been the best thing she has ever done.

She currently lives in the middle of the woods but has grand designs on a stone built cottage by the sea. Watch this space…

Find Helen on Facebook and Twitter @EllieAllAtSea

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