Leaving the Nest

A collection of poetry by Dorothy Baird that represents a woman’s journey into adulthood, through childbirth and motherhood and then on, as her children grow up and she passes into menopause and beyond.

Praise for Leaving the Nest:

‘Images, ideas and sounds fill eyes, ears, mouth and mind – and not just occasionally, but constantly. These pieces are the outpouring of a remarkable talent. They inhabit this universe in all its aspects: seasons, elements, animals, birds, land and sea. They are unobtrusively urgent, unashamed, and alive with longing lingering thoughts and feelings, with intensely personal experiences which Dorothy Baird has triumphantly universalised. They are an eloquent meditation on our lives, filled with the rich loam of humanity. In an increasingly ugly and unpredictable world, these poems are a reminder and an example of just how beautiful life can be.’ Christopher Rush

About Dorothy Baird

Dorothy Baird was born in Edinburgh and after travelling widely, including spending a year teaching English in France and the Soviet Union, returned to the city in 1989 to bring up her three children. She has worked in a variety of places including a biscuit factory, a shoe shop, and, briefly, a gentleman’s outfitter’s; taught English in two Steiner Schools and for many years was a tutor of English and Communication Skills for adults with learning disabilities. She now facilitates creative writing groups for adults in mental health centres and in the community, and leads writing workshops for children. She also runs a correspondence course in creative and therapeutic writing and is a Human Givens therapist.

An Interview with Dorothy Baird

When did you first begin writing, and what inspired you to do so? Have any specific books/authors served as inspiration for you?

I’ve had a strong relationship with words since as far back as I can remember. When I was six years old I wrote a story about Noah’s ark that was pinned up on the classroom wall and I remember the feeling of excitement and wonder at the way writing had made visible the pictures in my head. This is what inspires me, the way that words can flow on to the page in a process that not only is endlessly exciting but also helps me discover more clearly what it is I really feel.

Of special inspiration was the poet and teacher, Paul Matthews, to whom the collection is dedicated. He was the first person I met who totally believed in the power of words to reconnect us to our humanity through our imagination, a belief that has shaped the way that I have lived and worked for the past 20 years. Other specific writers include Mary Oliver, Jackie Kay, Seamus Heaney, Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Norman MacCaig, Natalie Goldberg and Julia Cameron.

Can you tell us something about the inspiration behind Leaving the Nest? And about what you were trying to achieve, what ideas you were trying to convey?

The book is about three strands of my life interweaving: my journey into adulthood with its many surprises and challenges of motherhood, the journey of my children who are every day growing more ready to go out into the world and whom I must learn to let go – and finally the strong thread of my desire to be awake to the richness of the many moments that fill our lives, but which are so transient they can slip by unrecognised. I hope, through writing, to learn to be more ‘mindful’ in the moment.

How do you go about creating your voice on the page?

I usually write a ‘splurge’, just letting go and exploring what ideas or feelings are in me at that moment that I want to shape more clearly. Then after a few days I’ll come back and sift through what I’ve written, discarding what is not relevant or what doesn’t work and writing again using what is left. After several drafts like this, I type it up on the computer and tinker with it on the screen. Occasionally the poem seems to write itself with only minor adjustments needed. When that happens it feels like a real gift.

How and when do you write?

I try to keep one day a week free for writing though in practice this is quite a challenge because of work and family commitments. I have a shed now though which I also nip into at odd moments, lock the door and snatch half an hour if I can. This helps to keep me sane! I would love to be able to write at night-time – or early in the morning as Julia Cameron recommends: there is a very special quality about those times of day. However usually the thought of sleep is just too tempting...

What do you enjoy reading? What are you reading that you can recommend at the moment?

I enjoy any and every book that I can lose myself in. I recently finished ‘A Fine Balance’ by Rohinton Mistry and ‘Never Let Me Go’ by Kazuo Ishiguro, both of which I highly recommend. I tend to read poetry before I start writing as a kind of warm up and in bed before I go to sleep. If I’m engrossed in a novel I read way into the night which is great at the time, but not so good in the morning when I have to get up.

An extract from Leaving the Nest

The Fairy Lochs
Wester Ross

At the end of the Second World War, a plane crashed here carrying American soldiers home. There were no survivors.

Two adults, three children
trudge into hills
through juniper, heather, the clutch
and grasp of mud.

Bog cotton flickers like will-o’-the-wisps
and the fairy lochs watch us
with their soft eyes
where lilies are white prayers
hovering on the threshold
of two worlds.

We see it then: crumpled scraps
scattered on the slopes
like litter from death's pocket.

A propeller points to the sky
with names we read in silence:
a gravestone

where the dark water stirs
like settling memories
in the smirring rain.

We are grateful to the Scottish Arts Council for a grant towards the publication of Leaving the Nest.