In this episode, Claire chats to poet Caroline Mellor about her debut collection Honey in the Bones - Poems to Rewild the Soul published by Golden Dragonfly Press.
The book is a spell. A rewilding of the soul. A realignment with the sacred cycles of nature and our bodies, and an invocation to restore kinship, reciprocity and harmony in barbarous, disconnected times.
From one winter solstice to the next, we dance from darkness to light and back again, encompassing sweetness and bitterness, times of rest and celebration, grief and healing, and cohering in the beauty, magic and wisdom of embracing the whole. The Honey in the Bones reminds us that the sweetness and nourishment we seek in life are always available within.
This is poetry as witchcraft, activism, healing, prayer and play. It is gentle, potent medicine for anyone who holds a vision for a kinder world. Above all, it is a love letter to an Earth on the cusp, and a mother's dream of hope for the future.
Caroline chose Wendell Berry as one of her favourite well-known poets and she read his poem The Peace of Wild Things. You can read the poem here.
Caroline Mellor (she/her) is a writer, forest school assistant and full time mum. She lives in the Low Weald of East Sussex with her husband, two children, three rabbits and a rewilded garden, from where she writes poetry, prose, personal essays, magazine articles and occasionally books. At the heart of her work is a deep love and reverence for the living world, and for the small, richly storied nook of the universe she calls home. Her first book of poetry, The Honey in the Bones, was published by Golden Dragonfly Press in December 2022.
You can find out more about Caroline´s work through her website www.carolinemellorwriter.com and on Medium: https://medium.com/@carolinemellor9 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carolinemellorwriter and Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_carolinemellor_/
Episode 24 - Caroline Mellor