Poetry and Flash Fiction by Ruth Gilchrist
I have recently been thinking a lot about my parents’ story. Exploring my childhood memories in poetry and flash fiction. Drought is a New Word Here was written last year towards the end of a very dry year. You can read about Poetry Scotland magazine here and subscribe to this issue 111 if you would like to read the whole poem .
“Here, it is all over the news; how porous our habits are.
I’m only just learning, Dad, how much of us is water.”
Sometimes my work with Open Book leads me to new publishers that I like and think my work would fit. This year I have discovered Fictive Dream – Short stories online and am very happy to have a piece published with them under their Micro Mondays section .
MicroMonday #44 – Fictive Dream In a period of drought during 2025, I began thinking about my childhood and the many ways in which people would conserve water. ‘More Often Than Not He Will Choose The Flowers,’ is a an love story but it also has a serious message.
“Steadily to not create a wave in this small ocean, he bears it the length of their house and out the door that has been left open for him.”
The artist has understood where you sit
the grass bent silver side up
knows the depressions where you half rest...
Portrait of Lakeland Hare
Dreich
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SOUTHLIGHT 33
Back when I was just beginning to write poetry a friend suggest I submit to Southlight Magazine, she lent me a few copies and I liked the format, so I gave it a go. Having those first one or two pieces chosen by an editor made me realise that I could do this; that a stranger found what I wrote meaningful enough to want to share it with others gave me confidence to keep going. I still had a lot to learn about the submitting process, but I think I will always come back to read and submit to Southlight.