SARAH WATKINSON

PHOTOPERIODIC

In the September garden I am planning

(as beeches are making their sharp buds

already among summer’s still-green leaves)

spring placings for my lovely little imports—

cyclamen from alpine valley woods,

with flower stems shortening in sprung coils

to pull one seed below the earth for winter;

and tulips bred in some high Turkish scree

with roots that shrink to bury their own bulbs

as summer desiccates the mountain’s skin—

inbred, these forms for lasting out harsh weather

with programmes set in motion by the light

to match seasons when water’s ice or vapour

and soil snow-blanketed or baked in drought.

BIOGRAPHY

Sarah Watkinson’s debut poetry pamphlet Dung Beetles Navigate by Starlight won the 2016 Cinnamon Press Pamphlet Prize. From 2019-20 she was inaugural writer in residence at Wytham Woods, producing The Woods of Hazel with Romola Parish. Her debut full collection Photovoltaic (2021) was published by Graft Poetry and is available to buy direct from the publisher, Waterstones or from Amazon.

As emeritus research fellow in fungal biology she has worked extensively on the activities of fungal networks in woodland, and co-authored three editions of the international graduate textbook The Fungi, Elsevier. She is interested in exploring the creative common ground between science and poetry, co-organising interdisciplinary meetings of poets and scientists in Oxford through the TORCH SciPo network, founded in 2016 with poet Jenny Lewis.