Ache

By Scarlett Ward

Scarlett Ward is an incredible young West Midlands poet as comfortable on the page as in performance, with a real ear for language and an imagination to match. Her debut collection, created with help and advice from Liz Berrry and others, doesn't disappoint, as it takes its Insta-concerns (Scarlett has 10k+ followers) of depression, insecurity, mental ill-health and the deep and powerful ache of a love found, and turns them in to quite startling poetry -at times as light as petals, at others as heavy and violent as a hob nail boot. Read, gasp, enjoy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Verve Poetry Press
• Release date: Jun 20, 2019
• ISBN: 9781912565825

Scarlett Ward

Scarlett Ward is a 25 year-old poet working from Cannock UK. Her work has recently featured in anthologies from Hedgehog Poetry, Fishbowl Publishing and Fly on the Wall Press. She runs a monthly from her family café ‘Del Nino,’ which was nominated and shortlisted for a Sabbotage Award in 2018.

Book preview

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scarlett Ward is a Black Country poet working from Cannock, England. In 2019 she came runner up in Mother’s Milk Poetry Prize, 3rd place in Wolverhampton Literature Prize, and runner up in the Verve Festival Community Poetry Competition. She was shortlisted for Best Spoken Word Poet by Saboteur Awards, and her work has featured in anthologies from Eye Flash Poetry, Hedgehog Press, and Fly On The Wall Poetry. Her micro-pamphlet Rebirth was published digitally with IriOsi Press in 2016. She is a snail enthusiast and hopes to extend her family of giant land snails in due time.

Twitter: @scarlettwith2ts

www.facebook.com/Scarlett Ward

Instagram: @scarlett.ward

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PUBLISHED BY VERVE POETRY PRESS

https://vervepoetrypress.com

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All rights reserved

© 2019 Scarlett Ward

The right of Scarlett Ward to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

No part of this work may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, recorded or mechanical, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

FIRST PUBLISHED JUN 2019

REPRINTED NOV 2019

Printed and bound in the UK by Imprint Digital, Exeter

ISBN: 978-1-912565-23-8

ePub ISBN: 978-1-912565-82-5

For Jacob, you are the reason I stayed alive long enough to write any of this. You are, honestly and without any exaggeration, the reason I breathe at all. I love you.

CONTENTS

i. To ache is to heal

We’re going to have to talk about it

I don’t know much about Catholicism

In which the oyster refuses to open

I ask myself

Purple (Love Notes To My Depression)

Melanchole

BPD

Spinner

X

I grew

The smiling yellow pistil

Sunflower

Kitchen windows

Recovery

What I chose to spend my birthday money on rather than a prescription for antidepressants

ii. To ache is to endure

Culling season

Snow

Higher

Crockery spines

Every piece is titled ‘Home’

Can’t help myself

How I can bear to drive past your address

One hundred and six miles

Tide times

The language of