A serpent biting at my breast
Myself a rotting sepulchre.
I am the living dead
Carrying the Crab
Whose offspring multiply within.
Both fang and claw
Eat away my flesh
Draining me of life.
Another biographical offering from Freya Pickard, tracing her development both as a person and a poet from her early twenties to mid-forties.
Freya Pickard is a cancer survivor, whose fight for life has forever changed her. These changes are reflected in a variety of poems she permits to be published here.
I want to be exciting, revolutionary, unpredictable,
I will cut my hair short and dye it purple,
I'll pierce my body and get tattooed in unmentionable places.
Initially determined to be single, Freya reveals what it was like to discover her soulmate. Enjoying physical and mental fitness, she tells how she struggles post cancer.
Always an observer, Freya looks within and without to catalogue her journey through an eventful life.
You don’t need to have read either Insides or My Mythology, but if you have, you’ll find This Is Me continues the threads of imagination and post-cancer trauma.
half light – otherworld
shadowed mist conceals land
transient journey
Tari held the divining rod in her hands, feeling the peeled bark beneath her fingers. She walked slowly up and down on the short turf, all her senses open to the slightest quiver in her hands. Nothing.
As she walked, she imagined she was Undine, priestess of Aqua, who had been her protector, confidant and guide for nearly a year. Undine had been tall and slender and serene. Tari was not tall and was curvy, rather than slim and, until recently, hadn’t felt serene at all. However, the treu-priestess had learnt, that by just pretending to be Undine, she could feel calm and confident, and that, in turn, encouraged other people to think she was serene.
This was especially important in the Cathair on Kiros where everyone looked at Tari all the time. Her relationship with the Queen was secure but Tari couldn’t afford to let anyone else know how terrified she was of this role that Lored, the taku-kevir had thrust upon her.
Tari paused at the edge of the hill and set the forked hazel stick on the ground, releasing her fingers, flexing her wrists. She stared out over the land and sea, looking down at the Cathair below. From here, the castle looked small; the tops of grey walls and slate roofs were dull beneath the clouded sky. A pale road wound through the town below the Cathair, ending at the harbour with toy-size boats and ships at anchor. The ocean appeared flat and grey and stretched out in a large curve towards the far horizon. To the west, green, wooded hills cast shadows towards the castle, and, to the east, farmland gave way to a distant darkness that Tari assumed was the Wild Wood.
If you have a Spotify account you can listen to my playlist for Elkadanu HERE!
“This is a fantastic read. The characters are all well drawn and the landscape through which the characters move is just right – familiar and easily imaginable, yet quite magical as well.” W Thomas
Mega thanks to Gwen Plano for publishing such a beautiful review of my poetry collection, Insides. Check it out HERE! If you haven’t got a Bookbub account, you can read the review below…
Thank you to Spillwords for publishing my poem, I, Vampire back in December 2021!
Thank you to Tigershark for publishing two of my poems in #30 in December last year as well! (It’s a FREE download!)
Thank you also to Luna for publishing my two of my poems so far this year! Check out Spite and Permission!
And thank you too to David ben Alexander at The Skeptic’s Kaddish for his wonderful collaborative poetry using words from my poem, Black Dust…
And a huge thank you to everyone who bought my latest book, Fair Wind, when it was launched in January. If you haven’t yet got your copy, it’s available on Kindle, Apple, Nook, Kobo and other online sites. Find out all about it HERE and watch the book trailer on YouTube. (If you like the book trailer, please share!) And, I’d love to know what you guys think of my latest volume in The Kaerling series…
Just reminder that I’m taking part in a Fantasy E-Book Giveaway at World of Fantasy. My book, Olin Heon, is one of the 37 books you can download for FREE up until 31st March – don’t delay, grab it (and other novels) today! Follow @BookCaveDirect for more free deals on Twitter!
Over at Pure Haiku my guests and I have been exploring the theme of Ghostlight, inspired by the amazing fractal by Troi David Loy. You can read all the haiku for this theme starting HERE.
And over on Patreon, my supporters have been treated to three new stories about Dracomagan of Dragonscale Leggings. They’ve also received 3 unique postcards painted and designed by me with my very own Iendu Kimol verses on them! And they’ve been able to listen to the music for my playlist for volume 9 of The Kaerling as well as understanding WHY I chose the music for it. And, today, they have received a character study on Lored, the Taku-kevir who plays such a central role in The Kaerling series… Sign up today to get goodies like these and more!
Don’t forget that my poetry collection, Insides, is still just 99c until 31st March! Watch the book trailer HERE and download your copy at Kindle and other online stores! “I’ve always liked Freya’s poetry, but due to the subject content, this work really resonated with me because my wife was diagnosed with cancer around about the same time. It was a different form of cancer, however, the emotional distress is the same. It was a really tough year for us both, and this work brings to life the thoughts, the emotions, and the reality that such a traumatic experience can have in one’s life.” Kevin Cooper
I’m taking a few weeks break from blogging, but will be back online in early May! Thank you for reading my posts and I look forward to catching up with you all again soon!
Due to selling the business and moving house earlier this year, I haven’t done as much writing as I would have liked to do. And I’ve only just started sending out my poems and stories to magazines, having taken a 6 month break in order to deal with solicitors, agents, utilities companies etc.
If you’d like to know more about where I’m currently living, I talk about my new abode and the area where I’m now based in my Patreon Support only posts. If you’ve signed up to donate monthly on my Patreon Profile, you’ll have access to these posts!
In my Newsletter I’ve started a new story – Resurrection, which is illustrated by Elisa Ang. This will be the last Dragon Slayer story for a while as next year I have something different planned!
Thank you to Luna for publishing my butterfly cinquain, Dark Rock at her blog over at Pen to paper!
As you’ll remember, I published another paperback, Fire Daughter, in May! If you’ve not yet ordered your copy, you can buy it direct from all Amazon marketplaces!
And finally, my collection The Rusalka Ritual & other stories is currently reduced to just 99c/99p until 21st July 2021. Grab it now before it returns to full price. It’s available at Kindle (all marketplaces), Kobo, Nook and Apple. “The stories range from atmospheric and tantalizingly fragmented (“Echo Peak”), to creepily fey (“The Rusalka Ritual”), to zanily off-the-wall (“A Picnic at Knole”).” E.P. Clark
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