Poetry spotlight: Elisabeth Hewer
I am so glad to say that my first poet spotlight is on someone I went to school with. How often do you get to say that? Answer, not often.
Let me proudly introduce you to Elisabeth Hewer.
She first got scouted on Tumblr when she was in her early twenties and consequently published her first small collection of poetry in 2015 with Platypus Press, entitled Wishing For Birds.
The collection is split into three sections; Looking Out, Looking In and Looking Back and compromises of 50 poems. The collection itself echoes a girls journey through each of the above sections and how they have shaped her.
The poem that really stuck out to me, and still does, is called ‘Three Rapes in One Week and They Just Wanted Us to Know That the City Was Safe.,’ for its relatable feeling of terror when walking home alone at night as a woman. The poem whose words are etched in my memory is ‘God Should Have Made Girls Lethal’, especially the last line;
“‘god should have made girls lethal
when he made monsters of men.’”
Lastly, the poem that makes me still want to runaway to unknown shores is ‘Space Race.’ My favourite lines read:
“‘I want to sleep until the universe is open.
I want to sleep until I can pour myself into it
and never look back; chase galaxies
like sailors once chased ports.’”
