Biography

Lucy Lepchani’s poetry is as likely to still the air with a serene sonnet as to whip up a storm with an invocation, or challenge the ways of the world with an edgy rant. Her ‘butter-wouldn’t-melt’ tones celebrate their subjects with a twist of political insight and abstract point of view - in rhymes to raise or rip your heart.

Currently living in Devon, and following an unconventional, reasonably-well-traveled, mother-of-four, starving-in-the-garret, activist and arty background, Lucy eventually decided to return to writing: a vocation briefly taken up years before, but abandoned to attend to the children, the bills, and all those other things.

Performing regularly at local open-mike, cabaret, and fund-raising events, she has also performed at festivals including Ways With Words, Dartington; Torbay Poetry Festival; Glastonbury Festival 'poetry and words'; Larmer Tree Festival; Croissant Neuf Summer Party in Wales, and the awesome Electric Picnic in Ireland.

Collaborative work includes ‘Race for the Writehouse - The Poets Political Party sham-slam’ with brilliant poet Dennis Just Dennis; the show demonstrating it gets an enthusiastic vote from audiences. Watch out for more talk of revolution, contemporary politics and possible world domination from this duo.
Other collaborations include performance with the delightful Mim Darlington, as literary duo 'The Honey Tongues' and with some of Devon's finest wordsmiths - Moor Poets - touring rural village halls, local, festivals, pubs and wherever else.

Lucy was born in Bromley to a Cornish mother and an immigrant father or Sikkimese origin. Land, landscape and land issues, journeys, ancestors, family, feminism and fierce politics are recurrent themes in her work.
She has had poems, stories, and essays published in several magazines and anthologies. In 2004 she won second prize in the biennial Asham Literary Awards, in 2005 won first prize in the Chelsea Flower Show poetry competition, was runner up in London Art’s Art of Love poetry competition, and in 2008 won first prize in the Wells Lit. Fest. International Poetry Competition. She also sometimes exhibits her poems in visual media.
Her Poetry CD ‘The Wisdom of Bees’ is funded by Arts Council England. She has also produced a chapbook called 'A Poet’s Manifesto'.


'..brightly illuminated language...and tender attentiveness to the world.'
- Andrew Motion, Poet Laureate

' An accessible and wide-ranging poet with compassion, warmth and wit.'
- Matt Harvey

' The destabilising mellifluousness of Lucy's tone elegantly contrasts with the insightful candor of her poetry.'
- Byron Vincent

Educational work:
Combining a passion for poetry and the spoken word with years of experience in multi-media arts projects including drama, art, copyediting, d.t.p. and storytelling, Lucy designs and facilitates dynamic poetry and creative writing workshops and classes for schools, youth and community groups, and for adult education.She is a tutor with the Workers Education Association.
Primarily concerned with her learners experiencing the joy of creativity, and with empowering the individual’s sense of ‘voice’, this approach establishes an effective and productive ‘sense of play’ in the learning environment.
She especially enjoys working on projects that involve engaging with the outdoor environment.

She has also been involved in coordinating projects for her local, rural, poetry professional development network ‘Moor Poets’ , including co-editing their second printed anthology and co-producing the group’s CD anthology ‘Uncharted’.

Samples

Title: AN ARMADA OF AUNTIES

(first place Wells Literary Festival International Poetry Competition 2008)



An armada of aunties, floral sails
rippling on swaying hips
appeared out of hot-engine magic-hat cars
and marveled at the sight of each other.

Sporting perennial shampoo-and-sets, and
familiar handbags dangled from
plump elbows; arms curved in mighty hugs,
while scarlet, fuchsia, and orange lips puckered and pecked.

They swooped down on us children like
billowing storm-clouds of flesh
squeezing and measuring, choking us with
gardenia and Eau-de-Cologne vapours
and the dusky pink scent of face-powder.

These soft-dough invincibles
were ballast in my childhood’s fragile hull,
while my brittle parents wrecked every chance
and then each other
on rock after treacherous rock.

A mainstay of earth-mothers in Marks and Spencer cardies,
they bore the glory of our ancestry;
with thighs that could lean great monoliths upright,
the courage to have ridden alongside Boudicca,
the skills to feed the five thousand with
nothing more than handbag mints,
and the wisdom to cleanse us all of sin
with a soft, white, spittle-edged handkerchief.

They brought the future, gift-wrapped
with their tales of ‘good old days’,
unraveled in the songs of our great-grandmothers
and a legacy of whispered, secret heirlooms.

Drawing up the map for my future,
they fussed, they flapped, they kissed again
and there, beneath, lay buried treasure:
where every X marked the spot.







Title: For an Unknown Poet in Iraq


Perhaps in the darkness, you light a candle
when gunfire disturbs your sleep;
or when the daylight so inspires,
you take a pen to paper, and write.

When gunfire disturbs your sleep,
faith calls upon a Constant Flame.
You take a pen to paper, and write,
transmute a lead-scarred future into gold.

Faith calls, upon a Constant Flame
when they gather in the ruined streets to hear you
transmute a lead-scarred future into gold,
arousing a heartfelt ache for peace.

When they gather in the ruined streets to hear you,
the words of a poet take root, and rise,
arousing a heartfelt ache for peace.
There, manifests a Great Mystery.

The words of a poet take root, and rise,
or when the daylight so inspires,
there manifests a Great Mystery.
Perhaps in the darkness, you light a candle.

All poems are copyright of the originating author. Permission must be obtained before using or performing others' poems.