Bernadette Lynch won July's Poem of the Month with Nuns. Here is our usual poet interview, delivered each month with the recent POTM poet.
THE POEM
Where are you writing from?
I write from a lifetime and an identity that is both of England and Ireland.I write of the city of my birth, Birmingham, and the village of my childhood holidays, Dysart in County Roscommon in the West of Ireland. I write of the people of those places – the workers, the lovers, the mothers and fathers, the elders, the children.
Literally, I write from my small desk in the front window, picked up at a salvage yard and greatly cherished; I write in my ever-present notebook. I write at the kitchen table in a cottage in the West of Ireland.
I write from my head and my heart and my gut.
I write from over six decades of experience on this wild and wacky planet.
What made you write this poem?
On a wander around Lourdes in the Pyrenees one hot afternoon, I came across a graveyard of nuns with their names carved into a marble plaque along the wall. I couldn’t resist such fabulous names so into the notebook they went to sit there for many a day.
The next stage in this poem’s life was a free writing session in a Caroline Bird workshop where she encouraged us to ‘riff’ on a single topic. I started with that juicy list of nuns’ names and let my mind loose.
It sat in draft for some time but was for resurrected for POTM when I riffed some more and let myself go with the theme ‘Too Much?’ in mind. Can it ever be too much I wonder when the mind gets its chance to flow?
How does this piece sit in your wider work?
It is a typical example of how my poems come into being, often starting when I am on my travels wandering around curiously, noticing what takes my fancy, and capturing it in the notebook just in case it might get a life in the future.
Graveyards are often a wandering place for me so that is consistent with my patterns and, following my Catholic convent school education, it is no surprise that my attention was drawn to the list of nuns’ names. When I came to riff on nuns, all those years of schooling and Catholic upbringing and cultural references of my lifespan came tumbling out.
All of the above is very typical of my writing practice in general.
Who or what inspires your writing right now?
Ireland as ever – I have been 3 times already this year and poems are a-coming I’m also writing a lot at the moment about the workings of the mind - dreams, sleep, processing, emotional honesty, negative thinking etc.
Tell us about your writing practice?
I find myself writing about identity and how much that is informed by place.
As I reflect on this question, I find that I am realising that there are certain recurring emotional threads in my work: restlessness, longing, loss, wanting, searching. I write about people: short, almost pen-pictures, that try to capture a character, a lifetime, a story, a relationship.
I write metaphorically about the interior life: moods, processing, transcendent moments, connection, depression, recovery, healing.
I write about places (often as metaphor for mood), not only those I have lived in but those I have visited: Portugal, Holland, America, Canada, the USA, the Middle East.
My poetry has frequent references or language from the worlds of Catholicism, Irish folklore and practices, working class Birmingham.
What does poetry do for you?
Poetry gives purpose and meaning to my experiences. It provides a channel, an outlet for all the frantic over-observation and over-thinking that is with me every waking (and sleeping) moment. My hypervigilant curiosity is now not a nuisance, but a vital part of my writing life. Each day is a source of material which I can pop into my notebook knowing that it won’t be lost and then I can allow my fertile subconscious mind to start doing the percolation while I go about my business. As the lines of a poem start to come, they can be captured too in my companion notebook until I can sit at my desk and begin the crafting.
The word connection is very important to me. I hope that my efforts to capture a mood, a human experience, moments of reflection and joy and sorrow in life might just touch another person, help them to feel, or be moved in a way that gives them life and meaning.
The word gift is important too. I like to share my work, in print, through readings, in public places, in the hope that my offerings give some else pleasure, reassurance, comfort, joy, recognition, release; that they smile or weep, and may be enriched, even if only for a precious moment.
What snacks fuels your poems?
It used to be copious amounts of coffee until I was advised to give up caffeine OMG. So now, decaff or, sadly, water. Sometimes Jacob’s cream crackers or Party Ring iced biscuits.
Three words that describe your poetry?
Tenderness. Connection. Gift.
Is there anything else you’d like to say to our readers, poets, or the world?
Keep writing – it can happen to anyone!
Have you published or performed before?
Published:
Poems published in anthologies, Poems for Grenfell and Poems for the NHS at 70 (both published by Onslaught Press)
Poem published in anthology, This is not Your Final Form (Emma Press)
Forthcoming publication of a poem in 14 magazine
Competitions
Winner: Cúirt New Writing Prize, Galway Literary Festival
Winner: SiarScéal Prize (Roscommon Literary Festival )
Longlisted for the National Poetry Competition
Shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.
Readings
Various venues in London, Oxford and Birmingham for Grenfell Anthology
Aldeburgh Poetry Festival for the NHS Anthology
Verbatim Open Mic at the Poetry Pharmacy, Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire
Online for the Galway Literary Festival
Open Mics in Welshpool, Newtown, Roscommon, Birmingham
Poetry in Public Places
Clun Museum, Shropshire
Roscommon Town Library
On a wall along a canal towpath in Digbeth, Birmingham.
And they have been read aloud:
on RosFM, Roscommon local radio station
from the walls of Ludlow Castle.
Why did you send your poem to VERVE’s Poem of the Month?
I am currently focusing on finding publication homes for my poems as I commit to working on publication more generally and hope to get a pamphlet/collection out in the next while.
I have a substantial body of work and am trying to fashion it into poems capable of being recognized in competitions and published in magazines so that I can test the quality of my work before attempting more extensive publication.
When I saw the prompt ‘Too Much?’ I recalled my draft of ‘Nuns’ and thought it might just fit the bill.
What does winning mean to you?
I am thrilled, cock-a-hoop, over the moon.
It is a great encouragement to me to persist with my goals around publication.
Anyone or anything you’d like to shout out?
Shout out to the Border Poets group (Shropshire). I have been a member for the past year and have been given invaluable encouragement, guidance and confidence by these kind and gifted poets.
Got anything coming up?
I facilitate a Poem and Prose group in the Sun pub in Clun Shropshire at which people bring along work written by themselves or others. We listen, share and chat.
Our next meeting is on Saturday 18th September 2026 when our theme will be Fields of Gold.
Join our Four Part Pamphlet Course
This Substack is here to celebrate our poets, workshop hosts, participants, Poem of the Month writers, and the wider VERVE community.
We’re sharing process, drafts, reflections, readings, and opportunities as they unfold. Subscriptions (£3.50/month).
If you value what we do, staying with us here really matters.
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.