Writing is a journey, both imaginary and physical. My first book took me to the Arctic to 'catch the colours' of the Northern Lights. Then I hunkered down to catch the wind-blown voices of polar explorers on Shackleton's 1914-17 Endurance expedition. More recently I'm obsessed by space: the race, the rockets, the final frontier.

Hear a BBC Radio Leicester interview about my space poetry at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03wfpyp
Explore my digital narrrative PHILAE'S BOOK OF HOURS, published by the European Space Agency, at:
https://rosetta-art-tribute.tumblr.com/post/144241709712/siobhan-logan-philaes-book-of-hours

My prose-poetry collections FIREBRIDGE TO SKYSHORE
and MAD, HOPELESS & POSSIBLE are both published by Original Plus Press at:
http://thesamsmith.webs.com/originalpluschapbooks.htm

Contact me for signed copies or bookings at:
https://twitter.com/siobsi

Visit the writers' development service I co-run at: https://www.facebook.com/TheWritersShed/


About Me

My photo
Leicester, East Midlands
As a storyteller, my work crosses boundaries of myth, science, history and spoken word. It has been presented in the British Science Museum, Ledbury Poetry Festival, National Space Centre and the European Space Agency website. In 2014 I ran a digital residency on WW1 for 14-18NOW and Writing East Midlands. I teach Creative Writing at De Montfort University and have experience of leading school events, workshop tuition and mentoring. In addition, I co-run The Writers' Shed, a service for writers, at: https://www.facebook.com/TheWritersShed/

Friday 20 March 2015

Sun Spot Singing

My first ever solar eclipse and since we won't get such a full-on show again before 2090, I'm surely unlikely to repeat the experience. So here's a special poem it inspired. We've been entranced all week by the BBC's Stargazing Live coverage. Unable to get hold of the necessary glasses, I enlisted my father-in-law David Thomas to help me construct a cardboard viewer. As it turned out, Leicester was in a corridor of sunshine with ideal conditions. While the street darkened around us, we peered at that tiny reflected circle. Awesome.



Credit BBC at: http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/81787000/jpg/_81787003_proba-2_view_of_europe_s_solar_eclipse.jpg





Obscura







minute
pin-hole sun
a speck of fire
chromosphere spark
piercing cardboard sky
unstarred & solitary
a solar particle
bitten by dark
moon smile
on cue
 
 
 
 
 
punched
sun-crescent
dusks the morning
chills a lunar breeze
from bird-muffled trees
but planet hushed we
squint on twilit street
catch that lidded
furnace eye
closed


(c) Siobhan Logan 20th March 2015