Poetry

For National Poetry Month 2024, we are celebrating SWC poets. Discover and read a wide variety of poetic styles from this collection of poets.

Discover SWC Poets

C. E. M. Winstanley

C. E. M. Winstanley was born and grew up in the UK. A core member of Sooke Writers’ Collective, Clare is proud to have been published in its annual anthology for the past seven years and of collaborating with Collective poets in four SWC chapbooks. She published her debut solo anthology, BITS OF STRING & THREAD, in July 2021, and has a second volume ready for publication in 2024. Listen to live readings on her author website cemwinstanley.com

W.M. Herring

W.M. Herring observes, absorbs, and declares from Gleann Eilg, her home in East Sooke.  Her work has been published in numerous literary journals and in her first collection of poems titled A Sure Connection.

Allie Picketts

Allie Picketts (she/her) is a musician, writer, parent, editor, teacher, and lover of nature. She was born and raised on the unceded lands of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), scəw̓aθən (Tsawwassen), and other Coast Salish Peoples, and is thankful to live within the traditional territory of the T’Sou-ke Nation. Nature and music are the inspirations for her writing. Allie’s career has spanned music teaching, performing, and the editing and proofreading of words in various forms.

D K Eve

D K Eve is grateful to live, work & play in T'Sou-ke traditional territory. Vancouver Island’s characters and settings inspire award-winning poetry and short prose published in several journals and anthologies.

The Produce Aisle in January
Winner in the inaugural Poems in Your Pocket Contest published in: Poems in Your Pocket Collection - Featuring the winners of VIRL's Poems in Your Pocket Contest (Vancouver Island Regional Library 2021). You can read the collection online at: Poem-in-your-Pocket-Booklet-Mar29.pdf (virl.bc.ca)
Excerpt: How much are these? / Six ninety-nine a pound I say / Product of Chile / I remember a bus ride outside of Santiago / passing pine forests and slopes of grape vines

An Afternoon at the Thrift Store
Second place winner in the inaugural Delta Literary Arts Society poetry contest (2022). Poetry Judge Barbara Baydala had this to say about the poem: "Beginning with a not to be ignored title, this poem employs carefully compiled detail, reminiscence, and humour to create a nuanced scene and character. A portrait that lingers in the reader’s imagination and invites an outing to the local thrift store!"
"An Afternoon at the Thrift Store" was featured in the VIRL Sooke Poetry Walk (2022) and published in Where We Reside - Poems of Time and Place (Sooke Writers' Collective 2022).
Excerpt: She is drawn to the blue / Crowded between black and green / each shade a beacon of its decade / aqua, baby, ultramarine

Laundry Day
Published in Where We Reside - Poems of Time and Place (Sooke Writers' Collective 2022).
Excerpt: The scant items clustered at the far edge of the clothesline / flutter like prayer flags across the back lawn / the empty space filled with ghosts

A Poetry Sampler

Poems from the pages of our chapbooks and anthologies.