The Garden Shed
The – in as definite
as the wood of planks
and words can be;
close, in fact if not sound,
to that owned as mine.
Garden – a make-shift
structure against nature;
an expanse for guarding pots,
plants and hopeful sun-traps;
sometimes used for plotting.
Shed – his unwelcome space,
where she’d not trespass;
a changing ‘room’ or place
where we cast off worn skins
to find our natural faces.
Sarah James is a widely-published and award-winning poet, fiction writer and journalist.
Her first full-length poetry collection, Into the Yell, (Circaidy Gregory, 2010) won third prize in the International Rubery Book Awards 2011. A second, more experimental, collection, Be[yond], was published by Knives, Forks and Spoons Press in 2013.
The Oxford modern languages graduate’s readings include Cheltenham and Ledbury Poetry Festivals 2013 and CAD and Friends 2014.
Commissions include poems on Worcestershire buses, and poetry used for Agfa’s annual report, Avoncroft Museum, Hanbury Hall and in Worcester Cathedral. She has a poem on the permanent Polesworth Poets Trail in Warwickshire
Abegail Morley 
Oh, what a clever structure for the poem! I like how the garden is a “makeshift structure against nature” And I like the mix of things in the second verse – the “guarding plots” and “sometimes plotting”. Enjoyed the light touch & humour. Love the beauty of the last two lines. Thank you 🙂