Olivia Dawson
Unbottled, Olivia's second pamphlet, reveals surprising family secrets when she tests her DNA to trace the identities of unknown family members.
Now Available from Maytree Press
Unfolded, Olivia's debut pamphlet is available from Maytree Press
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About
Olivia Dawson, originally from London, lives and writes by the sea near Lisbon, (the perfect place to write poetry!). She has an MA in Creative Writing from Lancaster University and is The Poetry Society Stanza rep for the Lisbon area. She is widely published in Poetry Magazines and Anthologies and her debut pamphlet was published by Maytree Press in 2020 with a second pamphlet published in October 2022 also by Maytree Press.
Poems
Cosmetologist Creates Shampoo Infused with Sound
It’s hard to trap snuffles of a baby’s breath,
the sssh of foam at low tide or the exhausted sigh
of a heart when it breaks. I need silence, a sleight of hand,
butterfly nets, Blu Tack to catch elusive threads,
a freezer set to hoar frost until echoes split
ready to be grated and mixed with white peach.
Of course I make mistakes, the last batch picked up
the zing of a trampoline spring from over the garden wall,
but uncork this flask and listen to your story.
Published in Unbottled
Traits Report
A found poem using my DNA traits report
I am average, with a 50/50 chance of most things,
my hair is likely to be straight or wavy, my thighs
dimpled with bitterness, possibly I have an aversion
to ability and fear probably bites me more often than others.
I’m predicted to have mosquito pitch, a dislike
of speaking sounds, an average chance of wet earwax,
perhaps higher odds than most of waking at 7.04 a.m.
with a possible detachment from good taste.
I’m likely to have a little freckling, a 73% chance
of my big toe being sweeter than my asparagus odour,
but I have fewer chewing variants than 58% of my ancestors,
which makes me 8% more (or is it less?) special.
Published in Unbottled