Faith
She wants to paint two fish
in a sky-blue ocean
under a cornered, risen sun.
Her hand wavers in concentration
over the silkscreen fabric.
Lines smudge, colours run.
She tries another frame, floods it
with iris-purple ink
then, uncertain
what will happen, casts
dry salt on wet silk.
Each fallen grain
spawns another fish –
drawn by osmosis,
by each slow thirst.
Helen Evans runs two poetry projects: ‘Inner Room’, and ‘Poems for the path ahead’. Her poems feature in Mariscat Sampler One (Mariscat Press 2024) while her debut pamphlet, Only by Flying (HappenStance Press 2015), was shortlisted for the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award. She holds an MLitt (Distinction) in creative writing from the University of St Andrews. Places her work has appeared include The Rialto, The North, Magma, and Amethyst Review as well as in anthologies, including Coming and Going: Poems for Journeys (HappenStance Press, 2019) and Thin Places & Sacred Spaces (Amethyst Press, 2024).
Amethyst Review 