Themes

I’ll start with mentioning that I have a second and third poem published by Poetry 24, both this week. They are called Swallowed and Hazard. The first is inspired by the disappearing islands around India, slowly sinking beneath the ever rising sea levels. Mind you it works doubly for some of the poor people suffering floods over here too. The second by the recent craziness of Eden Hazard.

Intriguingly, two of the poems that I’ve had published over there have an obviously ecological theme, although not all the poems that they publish do have. I think somehow I’ve stumbled upon something which is closer to my heart than I previously realised, and as such is something that I can write about more clearly and eloquently; and possibly this is being noticed over at Poetry 24.

When you think about it, this shouldn’t be something wholly surprising, as all writers have particular recurring subjects and themes. Many Iain Banks stories have the protagonist trying to move on from some ‘big event’ that happened to them (often causing them to move away from home), by being forced by some other external event to confront it.

Similarly, most Scarlett Thomas stories have strange or odd (almost Fortean) events happening to a female protagonist which causes them to go on some kind of adventure, forcing them to examine their life up to that point and where they are going next.

Each writer has their own pet themes, the things that crop up time and time again and become part of their signature in a way. I have struggled to come up with my own thus far, but probably still have time to experiment further. For it is our best writing which comes from the heart; because this is what we truly want to say.