Guest Interview Derbyshire Poet - Karey Lucas-Hughes

We are back in the writers’ room and we have a guest in our hot seat this week! The Derbyshire poet - Karey Lucas-Hughes.

Karey was born and grew up in north London in the 1960s. She studied French and English at Lancaster University before spending a few years living and working in Tokyo, Japan and Hamilton, Canada, with her husband Martin. 

They moved to the Peak District nearly 20 years ago, where they brought up their two children. Karey worked in secondary education for many years. In recent years, she has trained to teach Mindfulness Meditation. 

Karey loves the hills and dales of the Derbyshire countryside, where she walks and cycles.

Stories have always fascinated Karey and language: her own and other people’s, whether through reading or writing. From a young age, she has written journals and poetry. Last year, she won a prize in a poetry competition.  

More recently, she has written short stories, and now, having stepped back from full-time work, she has embarked upon her first novel. 

Karey found  Derbyshire Writing School online just when she was looking for inspiration and encouragement. She took part in the How To Write Your Novel course. 

The Aurora Prize for Writing is a national competition run by Writing East Midlands, in partnership with the Society of Authors.

In the category of Poetry – Best Writing From The East Midlands - Karey won the Aurora Prize for Writing 2020

Bathing

in peat water, by candle-light,

is immersion in the long, slow moments

of the deep enamel bath,

the quiet Scottish cottage,

the gloaming sky at the window.

Watching the small flame flicker,

neck deep in soft, brown fluid,

I am as peaceful as Ophelia,

in her ‘muddy death’

clutching her flowers of song

or as still as Lizzie Siddal

who posed for the painting

in a bathtub, silk dress billowing.

She caught a cold

when the water cooled.

So I top up the heat

and sink deeper in tea-water

complete with leaves,

watching steam rise

tenderly, like mist from a bog.

Now white legs and belly float,

glow like alabaster in moonlight

and I am smooth as Cleopatra

in her goat’s milk.

My body is steeping and steaming

and cleansing me of

all the heavy sorrows of a rotten year.

I infuse, far from home

until even my bones are bleached

by the thick dark heat

and I am ready to rise.

Karey Lucas-Hughes

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