Pen Portrait - Rosalind Parkes
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Rosalind grew up in the Chiltern Hills, walking at the weekends through beechwoods and over chalk slopes with her father, who also took her once a fortnight to the local bookshop where she could choose a precious new paperback. Words were what she loved; later she read English at Oxford University, subsequently beginning a long career in teaching. She holds a Masters degree in English from the University of Leeds, and in Tourism from Lancaster University. Her career expanded into Higher Education where she wrote, delivered and managed degree courses, mentored students and staff, and supervised dissertations. Rosalind started writing poetry in 2018, when she signed up for the inspirational online course ‘How to make a poem’, run by Manchester Metropolitan University. Besides Settle Sessions, she is a member of two other local writing groups. She enjoys open mic events, and it was after one of these that her first pamphlet, The Beholder’s Eye, was published by Fisherrow (2022). In this, she focuses on our interactions with the natural world. Her poems have also been published online by Littoral Press. She is currently working on a collection of poems about people, for which she is also producing images. |
Call and response
Outside the window every winter night the owls conduct their conversations, each with its own phrase, the one eliciting the other's swift reply, so close it seems one bird, one mind, one utterance. I think: Who calls and who responds? How does each know its part? Inside, we do not speak. We make no call and no response. Our silences abut each other, perfect pieces carved from long practice, the touching points unheard. Who will speak first? And who reciprocate? Neither. Our language now is lost to us, made obsolete by silences we share. |