Menu
Press to filter
Show all
  • Sole Erosion
  • On Pilgrimage – A Sacred Place
  • On Pilgrimage – Solvitur Ambulando
  • Open The Raising Voices Project
  • MK Lit Fest Writing ‘Place’ showcase
  • Write About Walking – In the Dark
  • 39 steps
  • Guimarães sound walk/drive
  • Write About Walking Together
  • Neighbourhood narratives – stories around us
  • Write About Walking A/way
  • Urban Tree festival 2023 writing competition
  • Write About Walking Home
  • Write About Walking and Listening
  • Open Shorelines

Gloves and Parakeets

No matter how far you walk you can never escape the voices inside your head. The trick is to find ways to quieten or distract them. A trick I had to learn in January 2021 when my anxiety and stress levels all but incapacitated me. I live in Greenwich, about fifteen minutes walk from Greenwich Park, home to the Royal Observatory, the equestrian events at the 2012 Olympics and also to one of London’s flocks of wild parakeets. The walk to the park was a way to distract the voices. I made it my mission to photograph the lost and abandoned gloves of London. Each day I took a different route and each day offered new finds. All gloves are disposable if you want them to be, there is a metaphor there for how we live, a clunking, obvious and potentially terrifying metaphor. This was one way to quieten the voices in my head. The other distraction is in the park, enter on Maze Hill, walk to the top of the park and at some point a chorus of screeches and a formation of neon green aliens will assail you. London’s wild parakeets, their origin an urban myth of escaped pets and dockland stowaways. Considered a pest and ripe for a cull. No! Sit in the park, close your eyes, let their cries envelop you and relax. No you can’t walk far enough to escape the voices inside your head, but sometimes just trying is enough.

 

Recitals

None... yet?

Also check out...

Poem
Longlisted
A trail meditation

jonrainford

Write About Walking and Listening
1
Poem
Shortlisted
Loop-Walking (Fragment)

Murdo Eason

Write About Walking and Listening
1
Story
Winner
Walk, Look, Listen Slow Marathon: Cabrach – Huntly

Claudia Zeiske

Write About Walking and Listening
Poem
Longlisted
Selective memories

Gerald

Write About Walking and Listening
1
Story
Shortlisted
Garth Hill

Nathan Munday

Write About Walking and Listening
Story
Shortlisted
The Belfast Greenway

ElizaB

Write About Walking and Listening
1
Poem
Shortlisted
Fatherland

Maggie M

Write About Walking and Listening
Story
Longlisted
The Silver Maple and Weeping Willow

- anon -

Urban Tree festival 2023 writing competition
Poem
Longlisted
Nomad possessions

Ricky Abbott

Write About Walking A/way
Poem
Shortlisted
Transfer

Megan Hicks

Write About Walking Home
1
Poem
The Mids

Sarah Davies

The Raising Voices Project
1
Poem
Shortlisted
Tree

- anon -

Urban Tree festival 2023 writing competition
1
Poem
Beyond the Page

Chris Allen

The Raising Voices Project
Other
The Fairy Pools

D.T.Langdale

Shorelines
Poem
North Park

Jean99

On Pilgrimage – A Sacred Place
1
Story
Runner up
Walking to Independence

Matthew Wignall

Write About Walking Together
Poem
Longlisted
Return of the Green Man

Richard Westcott

Write About Walking A/way
Poem
Shortlisted
i did

Mark Goodwin

Write About Walking Home
1
Story
Shortlisted
Occam’s Razor

Francisco Cruz

39 steps
1
Other
The buoy, Shoeburyness

Becky Kingsnorth

Shorelines
1
Other
Trying to Wash Clean

Adele Thackray

Shorelines
Problem?

Recitals

On copyright