Snails and Champagne by Featured Poet: Alicia Hayden

 

I wonder if you see me the way I see you:

A colourful spiral of bubbling energy.

The sepia coil of a snail shell, mixed with 

Electric bubbles of soft champagne –

A whirlwind of beautiful chaos.

A melody of a thousand starlings.

Alicia Hayden, 17th May 2021

 

I am an award-winning poet and artist from North Yorkshire, with a degree in Biology from Oxford University, and a love of wildlife and the natural world.

I think it is important to use creative writing and the arts to showcase the beauty of nature, and why we need to protect it; and this inspired me to create and self-publish my first, illustrated wildlife poetry book “Rain before Rainbows” in 2020, of which 50% of profits go to the wildlife hospital Tiggywinkles.

My poem “Leopard” won WWF’s My True Nature under 18s poetry competition in 2011, and my poem “Vulnerable to Extinction” won Prickles & Paws’ poetry competition of the same name in 2021. I was awarded the inaugural Ingrid Beazley Award for winning the Human Impact category in David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation’s Wildlife Artist of the Year 2021, for my piece “When the Whale Sang”, which accompanies my poem “The Whale’s Song”.

 

Website: https://aliciahaydenwildlifephotography.zenfolio.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aliciahaydenwildlife/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/aliciahaydenwildlife

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNn7n53grSoMi7cK68_58JQ

Ko-Fi (buy me a coffee): https://ko-fi.com/aliciahayden

 

Link/s to book sales:

Shop: https://aliciahaydenshop.bigcartel.com/

Books are also available to buy through The Little Ripon Bookshop, Ripon (UK): https://www.littleriponbookshop.co.uk/