WORK
Publications
I AM NOT LIGHT
BLACK BOUGH POETRY
2025
I Am Not Light by Louise Machen is a collection of poetry offering a fearless examination of the human experience. At times, these poems portray a figure of strength amidst chaos, a psyche whose defiance stands against the expectations of others whilst also reflecting on what it means to precariously belong against the backdrop of a disquieted mind and the volatility of the natural world.
Confronting themes of grief, loss, guilt and forgiveness, the reader finds themselves in a state of emotional chaos, which subsides through the passage of time, finding a measure of self-acceptance and love.
With a surprising ingenuity of language, Machen’s words interleave physical and emotional environments in a series of cleverly crafted imagistic verses. Rich in their reimagining of a persona on the edge of it all, these poems urge an acceptance of the darkness to make way for the emergence of light.
THE WORDS OF OTHERS ARE ALL WE HAVE
HEDGEHOG POETRY
2024
The Words of Others are All We Have is a poetry conversation between Louise Machen and J. Daniel West illustrating working class landscapes in an era of gentrification and widening social disparity.
This collection explores the city and its surrounding suburbs, examining the contradictions that arise in the relationships between people and the places that provide a familiar comfort whilst also encouraging the speakers of these poems to accept their inability to escape economic and emotional deprivation.
These poems are rooted in the everyday, in the discord between the metropolis and the natural world, in the importance of our ‘root networks’ and the realities of class restriction. From terraced streets to high-rise flats and glass monoliths to nostalgic landmarks, this conversation of poetry discusses experiences of childhood, adolescence and aging in the urban sprawl of the north.