created for Rachel Morgan

Rachel, along with Jen Feroze, are the joint custodians of a monthly Open Mic event at North on Leigh Broadway. This space is a beautiful, welcoming Open Mic environment, which also happens to serve the best Cheese (and Ham) Toasties in the entire kingdom.

Rachel’s been a poet longer than I have. Their work lives in the space between narrative and photograph, and I’d be lying if I pretended I’ve not learnt from them in the time I’ve been a part of the community… because that’s exactly what it has now become.

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1 Short Piece

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I started        doing it for them
the person    that I could have been
if all the life had been better placed
the currency of person better spent

until it was apparent        I was here
not only for myself    but the others
who would listen     who would grin
looking for                 what to spend

and now         I hand a coin   to you
the gardener    in all of this palaver
the doer and the maker          and the
mover    and the shaker    and the plant

that you                        let me grow here
my meagre harvest      from before
has now become a bounty   a trove
exposed                 within a hidden soul.

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Poem copyright S. Reeson © 2026

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Prohibition on Use of Work in AI.

For avoidance of doubt, the Author reserves the rights to this publication. No part of this publication can be utilised or reproduced for the purposes of assisting artificial intelligence technologies. © 2026

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