Anna Percy

Biography

I am a current PhD candidate at MMU with a Creative-Critical Project focused on Eco Poetry and Mental Health. I completed a Creative Writing and Contemporary Culture Joint Hons BA at Cumbria Institute of the Arts in 2007 and a Creative Writing MA at Manchester University in 2009. I have been performing around the country for over ten years and I have two full collections with Flapjack Press including a collaboration with Rebecca Audra Smith: http://www.flapjackpress.co.uk/page19.htm My most recent Pamphlet is Follow the Stag and Learn to Fly and is available from Three Drops: https://threedropspoetry.co.uk/coming-in-2016-poetry-and-prose-pamphlets/follow-the-stag-and-learn-to-fly-by-anna-percy/ Recent publications include the journal Confingo. I am a workshop facilitator, am a founder member of Stirred Poetry and a regular performer on the Manchester scene. I blog here: https://mostlynocturnalscribbler.wordpress.com/

Samples

We Could Be Merpeople (Just For One Day) When our pens fail take me with you to the canal, I will tell you where I hid the tails a fin secret for just such an occasion when we were at a low ebb we will make beds of discarded shopping trollies bouncy balls will be our erratic pearls wear crisp packet tiaras and beer can finery, we will sing haunting songs under bridges taking the rattle of train tracks as our bass make flutes from bent piping lure those who are lost to join us with our beautiful off key music and as the sun sets we will shake off the fading scales clamber back to land on unsteady feet How to be ok With Being in a Human Body Let your leg hair grow for the first time since you were thirteen feel how soft you are stop plucking your eyebrows learn to love how they look when you do work up to it f**** myopic men let them tell you you are beautiful start to believe them close your eyes feel their body imagine how wonderful you feel with practise you can f**** men who f**** like J G Ballard who take a curatorial interest in the shape of your scars pore over your pores your wrinkles who look at you right up close their eyes saucers who breathe you in deep an when you leave complain their sheets don’t hold your scent. 12th September 2016 I take up the knitting I put down months ago and am surprised my hands remember the action unfaltering my eyes return to the film without looking at them the simple way I spool out the black yarn like a good writing day when I wake and can find the words in bed without my stopping them it will be a headband the hair shorn by myself needs it always a late decision to take up the scissors in the bathroom in the moon mirror I can’t see the moon from there the door is open as I live there is only a street lamp visible in the window I am taking up knitting, a small project to be finished quickly a sense of accomplishment as it gives my hands something to do other than chew them worried at by my lack of employment and deadlines If I had forgotten how to hold the yarn create the tension it could be unpicked mistakes can be undone by my own hands unlike outside and regrets like poetry it can be picked up at any time I think of the roads outside their potholes that are never fixed and the drivers who are all haste and no mind when I am on my bike this city is anxious making the road is often all I can focus on shards of glass and laughing gas canisters are puncture fears I get agitated by the selfishness of those drunk on the obvious and summer who fling these items on tarmac and forget what heavier vehicles and sunlight will do I want to ride on smooth roads and look up at the changing tree canopies like spooling wool into scarves like writing on a good day.

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

Blog entries by Anna Percy

My First Full Length Collection (12/06/2013)

Workshop Opportunity (26/07/2012)

Childhood Recollection (26/01/2011)

STIRRED: FOR WOMEN WHO WRITE (29/10/2010)

I am doing this event on sunday! (17/09/2010)

Bookfest Poetry Reading in Oxfam Withington (01/07/2010)

Manchester Folk: I will be reading at this event (17/08/2009)

The Illustrious Magazine (17/08/2009)

Illustrious Magazine (11/08/2009)

Blog link: https://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/annapercy

Audio entries by Anna Percy

My First Full Length Collection (12/06/2013)

Tweets by @AMDPPoet