This week’s Featured Poet is Amy Blakemore


Amy Blakemore first began writing poetry when she was fifteen, after reading some Carol Ann Duffy and thinking it didn’t look that hard. She was named a Foyle Young Poet of the Year in both 2007 and 2008, and was commended in the Torbay Open Poetry Competition in 2008. That same summer she interned at the Poetry Society, and they taught her to photocopy and do other useful things. Her poetry has been published in a variety of magazines and journals, including Pomegranate, Cadaverine, Iota and Rising. She has also had the good fortune to have read her work on BBC London Radio and Radio Europe. She is now 17, and studying for A-Levels in History, Philosophy and English Literature at a funny little school in south-east London.

The virgin of Guadalupe

From the playground to the park,
she tore indiscriminately,

her hair wide behind her like a
flag; dripping with catholica,

purple and gold rosaries
at her snakey body’s every juncture;

velvet ribbon and scraps of lurex,
blue Mary’s and Theresa’s.

Through the city she blazed a trail,
her mouth became a lovely firetrap;

she smelt of men
with motorbikes and vintage ephemera.

They called her The Virgin Of Guadalupe,
for all her nailgunned roses, her weeping messiahs;

though the name was ironic.
You heard she mothered

noisily behind
the bus shelter at dusk.

In the summer her hair would burn
and the shrines she kept behind her ears would melt,

she’d tear through the city in ankle socks
and not much else;

It won’t be long you see,
before she tears no more –

becomes a legend
for the sewer’s glitterati

and perhaps
cleans rooms in a hotel somewhere.

Be a Featured Poet — send a few poems to claire@onenightstanzas.com… it’s that easy!

(Photo bt Cinematicsoundtrack)

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4 Responses to “This week’s Featured Poet is Amy Blakemore”

  1. morganne Says:

    Love this poem. Really gorgeous,
    and very interesting as well!!!!!!!!

  2. Beth Says:

    That poem matches the tattoo I have planned for June (as the does the photo!)
    Read my mind !! x

  3. Wade Says:

    Excellent poem. Very professional. The device of “catholica, ephemera, glitterati” didn’t really sit right with me, but everything else was beautifully told.

  4. William Soule Says:

    Love the poem. I disagree with Wade on the word choices. I thought those were refreshing to see in a poem.