Josephine Lay, Author and Poet

Josephine Lay will be joining us for the second time this year. Last year, she treated us to some poetry readings and excerpts from her book. This year she will be running a poetry workshop.

Josephine has loved reading fiction for most of her life and started writing around twenty years ago. She loves to play with words and explore her creativity through poetry and art. For the past four years, Josephine has been running creative writing classes for people interested in writing. Her published works include women’s fiction and poetry books, she is interested in philosophy and art in addition to writing.

Josephine Lay is a writer of novels, short stories and poetry
Last year she hit her head

‘When I Hit My Head’

When I hit my head I saw stars,
not like the ones in the night sky
more like ones in a red firework.
I got up as fast as I was able,
I was caring for my grandson, who’s three.
He said, ‘Are you alright Nanny?’
‘Yes’ I lied, holding on to the table.

When I hit my head light entered
along with the pain, which showed me
new perspectives. I saw the world again
as though it had been newly painted.
My brain was shaken, unscrambled,
returned to factory settings,
I became a new personality
freed from all responsibility.

Since I hit my head I’ve become a performance poet.
I’ve joined the GPS, which I adore,
I don’t look after grandchildren
I don’t do housework any more.
Dirty washing rises in quantity
I’m out more often than I’m in.
Paradoxically, I was glad I’d hit it.
That is, until six months later, when…(yes you’ve got it)

I hit my head again.
The lights went out, just for a minute,
the July sun was hot as was the
concrete block I fell over.
Returned to A & E, confused, not amused,
where staff of course were great
but only after a four hour wait.
When I hit my head again
I became politically active
I made my Facebook posts public as
I vented my frustration on government,
joined Amnesty, stood up for human rights,
argued against racism and even
shared Jason Conway’s fight against
environmental plastic pollution.

Since then I’ve observed performance poets,
each has individuality and some wear hats
for personality.
I wanted some headwear to give me flair
and gain me more attention.
What kind of hat would pass that test?
Then, it hit me…
when falling down, a hard hat would be best.
Twice, I’ve had concussion it’s left a strong impression.
Too proud to use a stick I need this hat’s protection,
in case of scoring a ‘hat trick.’