The Journal

Poems about rage, motherhood, politics, grief, awakening and the refusal to be quiet. New work posted as it happens. Read, share, feel something.

Rants With Shaking Hands Rants With Shaking Hands

It Was Never Just One Bad Judge

Getting rid of one judge will not fix this. It was never just one bad judge. It was a system built in a world that has never taken violence against women and girls seriously enough. One man pulled the trigger. The system loaded the gun.

Read More
Rants With Shaking Hands Rants With Shaking Hands

They Did Everything Right

They reported it. They were believed. A jury convicted the boys who raped them ten times over. And a judge sent all three home, without a single night in prison. This was never just a verdict for two girls in Hampshire. Every woman in the country read it.

Read More
Rants With Shaking Hands Rants With Shaking Hands

Let’s take it all back. #shadesofwomen

Smart glasses are becoming more of a thing. And it’s NOT good for women. Men are using them to secretly film us in public. One woman’s video got 23 million views before she even knew it existed. Here’s what we do about it.

Read More
Art, Process With Shaking Hands Art, Process With Shaking Hands

Uncontainable

Too much in my head. So I painted. Uncontainable is a mixed media artwork about feminist rage, collective voice, and refusing to be quiet.

Read More
Process, Art With Shaking Hands Process, Art With Shaking Hands

Rage. Roar. Rise.

You know Live. Laugh. Love. You have seen it on kitchen walls and coffee mugs and cushions and cards. Handed to women as the full extent of what they are supposed to feel and want and be. Content. Quiet. Decorative. Grateful. I took that format and I put something else inside it.

Read More
Rants With Shaking Hands Rants With Shaking Hands

I Could No Longer Stay Quiet

I started With Shaking Hands because I could no longer contain it. The rage. The grief. The watching. The knowing. The gap between the world as it is and the world as it should be, and the feeling of standing at the edge of that gap with no bridge and no ladder and no way across…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

I Was You

Everyone says you look just like me.
Let me tell you what that means.
They were choosing your colour
before you had even arrived.
Here is your doll.
Here is your kitchen.
You will learn to be good…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

Because. We.

Because I am an English woman,
and I care what happens there.
Because what they do with women’s rights
ripples through the global air.
Because in the land of the free,
they’ve locked the clinic door…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

The Rucksack

There’s a rucksack I carry.
Invisible, but heavy.
It wasn’t packed in one go,
just a slow, relentless loading.
Not days or months,
but years of collecting…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

Can You Even Imagine?

I didn’t mean to cry today
not in the cereal aisle.
Not because of war.
But I thought about my boy,
his Spiderman pyjamas,
the way he skips when he runs…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

164 Years

164 years ago
the world was quiet
horses on cobbles
candles in windows
hands red from scrubbing linen…

Read More
Poetry With Shaking Hands Poetry With Shaking Hands

Brave Enough

You don’t have to roar.
You don’t have to rise with fists clenched,
shoulders squared,
battle cry ready.
You don’t even have to move…

Read More