Hello,

Hasn’t this week been a delight? I have adored the bright mornings, blue skies and warm sun. It just makes everything feel easier, somehow.

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It’s just a short newsletter this week with an exciting freebie! I’m building up to publication day for my new poetry collection by sharing one poem each day on my social media. If you want to see these, find me @elisabethpikewriter on Instagram here.

This week, I have a treat for you. Just for my subscribers here at Miners, I have an EXCLUSIVE advance copy of my forthcoming poetry collection.

Click here to access your FREE ADVANCE COPY!

Get my free book

Have a read, enjoy, and let me know what you think!

If you love it, please leave me a little review at Amazon or Goodreads - it can just be one word - but reviews make all the difference when finding new readers.

Here are a few pics of the arrival of the proof and a windy hair selfie from the first picnic of the year on top of the Ragleth, near my home.

And here is one of the poems from the new collection, all about summer, how brief it feels, and how, as soon as it gets here, it starts to spin away.

Things the Summer Teaches

That as soon as it is here,

it is already thinking of leaving.

I haven’t even paused for thought,

haven’t truly felt the warmth of summer,

and already it starts to spin away.

Midsummer gets me every year.

‘Stay on and bloom,’ I plead, ‘don’t leave.’

That the leaves will always fall,

no matter how tightly

I clutch summer to my chest.

That I can’t stop this world from turning,

however hard I dig my heels in.

That it won’t rest for tragedy, heartbreak, or despair,

but spins tirelessly on, drawing each day to itself,

filling its spool with the thread of the everyday.

That my children will outrun me, even the littlest,

that my job, after all of this, is just to let go.

That these four came to me like birds for the winter,

and are preening their wings on the wire again,

readying themselves for flight.

The Ways in Which We Are Like Birds is coming out on Thursday 20th March (the first day of spring - yeay!) You can get it as a digital version or as a paperback from Amazon. I will also have limited stocks available in my Etsy shop.

That’s all this week.

Thanks so much for reading Miners,

Elisabeth x

Miners is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.