An Ode to My Boots

I have just returned from another wonderful Writers In Prison Network Conference.
It was lovely to meet the new writers who will be starting their prison residencies in October and catching up with my fellow "lags" including the poet, Brenda Read-Brown and Storyteller, John Row.
I was touched when Brenda admired my cowboy boots and within five minutes had scribbled this little ditty.

"Hell For Leather"

Cowboy Boots should show their wear -
Stirrup scrapes; abrasion from the girt;
Whatever. These have done their bit.
Scruffy, scuffed; treated without care,
And yet well-loved. These boots are tops
for Jane. They take her here and there -
Wherever. But their life's been shared,
For these boots came from a charity shop.
They've ridden the lonely High Street trail'
Sat astride the bargain rail;
Faced the sunset of the last-chance sale -
accompanied the writer's wagon train.
They're not just any boots. They're Jane's



Brenda is an amazing woman who began her writing residency last year.
Here she is being interviewed by another fellow writer in residence John Row who presents a radio show on Ipswich Community Radio.
Listen to Brenda reciting her poems on John Row's radio show on Thursday at 10am.


Brenda has also reached the semi-finals of the BBC Radio 4 Poetry Slam competition and I will eat my cowboy boots if she doesn't win!

Thursday I wore:
Cowboy Boots- Dorothy Perkins
Jeans - Gap
Vest - Isabella Oliver
Wrap - Jow Brown's

Friday I wore:
Cowboy Boots and Wrap as yesterday
Dress - Joe Brown's