Rachel Lightfoot is a Poet with a dark sense of humour and a passion for creative self-expression. No stranger to the Arts, Rachel has worked in and around the rich and diverse tapestry of the entertainment industry. Growing up in a small rural town in South Yorkshire (UK), Rachel moved to Sheffield to study Film & Literature. After acquiring her BA Honours Degree, Rachel built her very own Burlesque Empire which ran for eight years. Drawing on her passion for creativity, Rachel successfully wrote, produced, promoted & performed in her very own live stage shows. Now pursuing her rekindled relationship with the written word, Rachel spends her time supporting local film productions as well as creating short works of poetry inspired by her life experiences. At one with the darker side of the human psyche, Rachel's poems explore mental health, unbridled human emotion and self-imposed limitations. All whilst keeping a sense of humour and optimism alive. After all, if we cannot laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at? Her influences stretch across a multitude of genres and include a range of Artists from classic Poets to rock stars: William Blake, Keats, Neil Gaiman, Brian Froud, Salvador Dali, Alice Cooper and Hozier to name but a few.
Read Rachel's poems here:
What does poetry mean to you?
To me, poetry is self-expression in its purest form, a way in which to articulate those emotions that are often too abstract to make tangible. It's a vehicle for those emotions, a way to transport them onto the page. Both writing and reading poetry are ways of exploring our own mental health to some degree or another...and I think that's a good thing!?
What inspires your poetry?
I'm inspired by a multitude of things, for me poetry is an emotional muscle, so I am often influenced by my own (sometimes) surprising and extreme reactions to people, situations or things! I like to explore these reactions to see if they are ridiculous or not (they often are) and then that will set the tone of the piece: whether funny, sad or optimistic etc.
I find a lot of inspiration within music and art as well, as these are also the things that tend to provoke extreme emotional responses within me.
I also think you can pick up a lot from the environment around you and inspiration can be found within the smallest things.
Which are most important to you: (1) joy, (2) peace, (3) patience, (4) kindness, (5) self-control, (6) faithfulness, (7) gentleness, (8) love, or (9) goodness? If you can, explain why.
I think ALL of these things are very important in creating and leading a fulfilling life. I would choose joy, love and goodness as THE most important things on this list as I believe these three key components carry the others within them. For example, you can't really have goodness without kindness, joy is a form of peace and love is...well it's in absolutely everything...!
I believe it's important to lead a joyful life, and in the moments where you can't find joy, you should always be striving for it: looking for the joy in the smaller things, learning how to love yourself, and maintaining kindness by being kind to others and being kind to yourself. We sometimes forget to do the latter, especially when we feel low.
I try to approach the world with an open heart and I hope that it greets me in the same way...of course, it sometimes doesn't, but I am learning to recognise that that's really not my problem!
What sort of things are you looking forward to improving this year?
I'd really like to improve and practise more formatted poetry, I tend to write free verse as it's, ahem, easy! But I could really do with challenging myself to write in specific meter's again, adhering to strict rhyme schemes.
I'd also like to look into publishing a bit more this year and learn about the in's and out's of publishing a collection.
What is one big dream you have?
Of course it would be to have a book of my poetry published by one of the top publisher's!
A Modern Day Fairytale
Once upon a time….
There lived a Princess
Locked within a tower of bricks
By a wicked, wicked witch.
The wicked witch was named,
‘Mortgage’
And she was a real bitch!
The Princess was glum,
Too much work to be done
And she worked herself blue
As Mortgage cackled, “I own You.”
The Princess was only fed scraps;
no food for the soul,
But Mortgage gobbled
Pay packets whole,
Drool rolling down her greedy chin
Grinning a deadly grin
And sucking on the bones.
One day, Temptation called to the tower
To say,
“Princess, let down your hair!”
But Mortgage was there
To say,
“No.”
The Princess was sad,
Mortgage was really bad
And as if that wasn’t enough,
I’ll tell you some really Grimm stuff…
Mortgage had wicked Sons:
We’ll call them ‘The Bill’s’
And they could drive you to pills!
They multiplied at an alarming rate,
Leaving the Princess in a real state.
And so all the Princess could do
Was await….
A knight in shiny armour
To unlock the gate,
And climb up the tower
To bear some of the weight.
And one day,
A Knight did finally arrive
In a clapped out Chevrolet.
The Knight’s name was
‘Best Friend’
And she’d come to lend
A helping hand.
The Knight took out her sword,
And held back the horde
Of wicked things for a while.
And with them backed against the wall,
The Knight cried,
“Princess, I heard your call!
You can always rely upon me,
Just utter the magic plea:
For, every time you cry, ‘Rescue me!’
I’ll be here with bread and tea.”
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