Zoe Brookes

As part of my series of photographs; 12 Gloucestershire Poets, I recently photographed Zoe Brooks. Zoe is the director of Cheltenham Poetry Festival and has been widley published. Her long poem for voices, Fools Paradise, won the Electronic Publishing Industry award for poetry eBooks in 2013.

As with everyone I am photographing in this series, I asked Zoe where she would like to be photographed and she suggested Hailes Abbey. On the day, we arrived to find the Abbey closed so we headed for the field next door and the neighbouring church, Hailes Church. I've chosen my favourite photograph from the series to display here. The interior of this church is beautiful and provided a interesting backdrop for the photographs.

I asked Zoe if she would share a poem with me and she has kindly agreed for it to be reproduced here.

The Gypsies in the Room

It is the unstitching

of the mind,

we tell ourselves, watching

as she slips further from us,

like an old purse,

the lining opening

to reveal lost coins.

Morphine and dementia

see the gypsies in the room,

silent in a row.

The ancestors come to greet her,

we joke,

to watch over the journey

we cannot take with her,

not yet anyway.

The coins jingle,

crossing the palm

of the ferryman.

If you would like to find out more about Zoe, please visit https://www.zoebrookspoet.co.uk