Poems

Poetry, for me, is an exercise in layers. My poems are often a blend of personal experience, the stories of those I have listened to, and the occasional invention. While I wrote as a student, my passion ignited in my twenties through journaling and counselling. My goal then, as it remains now, was to capture the things that are hard to say as briefly and honestly as possible.

A pivotal moment was receiving The Intimate Art of Writing Poetry (by Ottone Riccio) from my Aunt Priscilla. It revealed poetry as something living and breathing rather than dry and technical. Since then, my craft has been shaped by writing groups and courses with The Arvon Foundation and The Poetry School.

My publishing journey began in the 1980s in Wales. Under my own imprint, Lle Noddfa Books *, I released two booklets, Insights and Choices. After moving to Colchester, the loan of a Mac Plus allowed me to step into typesetting. Using my lunch hours in a drawing office to ‘paste up’ the pages and create the cover, I prepared my first ‘proper’ book with a spine and ISBN. Thanks to the patience of Acorn Press, Mis-steps and Dances was born in 1989.

In 2016, after a twenty-seven-year silence, I published Metamorphosis: Poems of Transition. Modern technology has made the self-publishing process far more accessible, and I hope to eventually digitise my earlier works.

Purchasing My Books

• Metamorphosis: Available in paperback and on Kindle via Amazon (search for ‘Christine Rigden’).

• Mis-steps and Dances: I still have a few original copies available for £3 plus postage. Please contact me via my Contact page if you would like one.

 

* (Lle Noddfa is Welsh for ‘place of refuge’, pronounced ‘thley NOTHE-va’)