The Sea Refuses No River by Bethany Rivers @bethanyrivers77 BLOG TOUR @fly_press #TheSeaRefusesNoRiver

The journey of grief is a strange one

and one not often talked about in our everyday reality of this society,

but I know what it's like to dive deep,

down to the bottom of the wreck,

feel the ribs of the wreck,

after losing a parent so young in life

In this collection, the sea refuses no river, there is an acceptance of the pain and an acceptance of the healing moments; the healing journeys. To quote Adrienne Rich: I came to explore the wreck', and in this collection, Bethany discovers how, 'The words are purposes. The words are maps.'

The Sea Refuses No River by Bethany Rivers was published by Fly on the Wall Poetry on 21 June 2019.  I'm delighted to share a sample poem from the collection here today as part of the #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour

Your Map

(After Louise Gluck)

Destinations are unclear and million-fold.  I have to find ‘end’

on the map.  It’s usually another beginning.  A solitary ‘A’

of not knowing, trying to find its own Z, when I hear my father’s voice:

my death is not your map, you have to find your own key. 

I’m heading for the centre, I think – or is that where I begin? 

The centre doesn’t feel real at all.  You can’t see the centre

of an unclear destination.  Through a door of star magnolia flowers,

there is life.  I hear pigeons coo, full throated.  They come with meaning. 

They know me well.  They’re here to guide.  They know I’m still stuck at A.

Out on the winding roads of Wales, there are no memories of you. 

That photo you took back in ’62, before I was born, that fountain

which knew you by depth and by blueness, future voices hidden deep.

You passed your camera onto me.  You passed on your love of blue.

I call ‘Dad’.  I call louder.  In my dreams I’m always calling you. 

New empty houses, derelict streets, me flying above you, & you occasionally

call back to me through dreams.  I don’t always know what you mean. 

I stare down alleyways, hallways, seaways of azure.

Remember, you say, beneath the desert there is treasure: there is water.

Bethany Rivers' debut pamphlet, Off the wall, was published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. 
She is the author of ‘Fountain of Creativity: ways to nourish your writing' from Victorina Press.
Her biggest passions in life are writing and enabling others to write.
She has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and online in the UK and USA, including: Envoi, Cinnamon Press, Bare Fiction, Fair Acre Press, Verve Poetry Press, Yorkshire Valley Press, Silver Birch Press, The Lampeter Review, The Lake, Blithe Spirit, High Window Literary Journal, Laldy Scottish Literary Journal, Writers' Cafe, Riggwelter, I am not a silent poet, Picaroon Poetry, Three Drops from a Cauldron, The Ofi Press.

She has an M.A. in Creative Writing from Cardiff University and has taught creative writing for over 13 years.
She also mentors writers individually, through the writing of their novels, short stories, children's fiction, memoirs, and poetry: www.writingyourvoice.org.uk 

Bethany Rivers is also editor of the online poetry magazine, As Above So Below, which publishes poetry on the theme of spirituality and transcendence.

Twitter @bethanyrivers77