So it isn’t today.

Well, it is and it isn’t.

My new poetry book ‘Under the Influence’ will now be available from February 26th, not today as I’d hoped (the publisher has amended his website accordingly).

But seeing as you are here, have another poem from the book. And please come back on Wednesday for the start of a new series of creative writing prompts and inspirations: 5pm (Dublin time), January 26th 2022.

Reality Check
Don’t look said my mother
as the other kids gawped at
the dead dog in the gutter
See the rainbows, she whispered
pointing to oil-slicked puddles.
She talked fables and fairies and fluff
standing between me and reality,
hadn’t heard Hemingway
describe an unhappy childhood
as the best early training for a writer.

by Louise G Cole

from'Under the Influence' published by Hedgehog Poetry Press