Writer Amanda finds release in her poetry
‘YOU HAVE to keep your mind busy, or your hands, or both’ – that’s according to one Roy Bridge woman who has found a new love for poetry.
Amanda Holdaway spent her professional career as an insurance claims investigator.
Originally from Sussex, she moved to Lochaber with her mother 13 years ago and her current home eight years ago.
Amanda describes herself as a creative person who has always had a love for words, but told
The Oban Times it was when her mother died just over two years ago that she really started writing.
‘English and history were my preferred subjects at school,’ she said, ‘and I received distinction in both of them. I used to write occasionally but it really was sporadic, when the mood took me.
‘I am single so when my mother died it was really just me – and the long dark Lochaber nights were sometimes difficult. I guess I found the writing kind of therapeutic and wrote more and more.
‘At the hardest times, my writing has reflected my mood and has been quite melancholic but I found putting my thoughts down help ease me out.
‘Similarly, if I look out of the window and see a squirrel being silly in the trees, then it can really make me laugh and it is fun to jot it down.’
One of Amanda’s first poems was a gift for a neighbour, and the present was appreciated so much that when he told friends and family about it, they started asking for their own.
But despite the increase in frequency, Amanda still prefers to write by hand. The 58-year-old said: ‘My neighbour enjoyed golf so much and one day the words just came to me so I put them together. Next thing I knew I was being asked for poems about a hamster and what not.
‘I love to play with words. I sometimes put words on pieces of paper and can then can draw them together in a way that creates a nice poem – you couldn’t do the same with a computer.’
‘The other day I was driving in the car and the first line of a new poem came to me so I held on to it in my head and wrote it when I got home. The poems just seem to happen – I don’t plan them as such but they certainly bring me joy.’ The Oban Times will feature one of Amanda’s poems each week, the first of which is here.
WINTERS’ SHOW
Softly falling flakes muffle sound as they gently touch the ground.
Whiteness filling air gathers pace as more and more join the race.
A collision of joining hands makes a blanket once it lands.
Frequently pristine scene untouched snow only contours left on show
Prior sights erased with coating winter’s uniform enshrouding
Uniquely formed every one share their fate under the sun.