“Helen Anderson’s poem ‘Outrageous Light’ is a stark reminder that nothing can really take away the utter devastation of losing someone we love. ‘Gone is Gone’ holds such heartbreaking finality, is an unarguable statement with a dark, epitaph-like feel. The last stanza offers a hollow and terrible contrast – one child is gone from this world, another is born and begins on this uncertain life. The poem ends with ‘Thank You for the Gift and its devastating double meaning.” – Jane Burn, guest editor.
Outrageous Light
This unearthly time of morning
makes me remember.
It holds me, tourniquet-tight.
This dim-dark time of morning
may as well be night:
no Nordic word for Cosy
salves the bite
of Gone is Gone.
On the marble mantel,
colourless condolences –
a newborn baby’s parents’
Thank You for the Gift.
Helen Anderson has an MA in Creative Writing (Distinction) from Teesside University. In 2017, her poetry pamphlet ‘Way Out’ was published by Black Light Engine Room Press and she was the winner of the People Not Borders Short Story Competition. Author of ‘Piece by Piece: Remembering Georgina: A Mother’s Memoir’ (Slipway, 2015), Helen’s work has been published in literary magazines such as Confingo, Miracle, DNA, The Projectionist’s Playground, and Another North. She is a bereaved parent, a widow, and a firm believer in the therapeutic power of writing.
Celebrating Change 