Isabel was born in London in 1988 and spent much of childhood in Portsmouth. Having received a Distinction for an MLitt in Creative Writing at the University of St Andrews, her poems have gone on to feature in a range of publications such as Poetry Review, The Guardian and Staple. Most recently, Isabel has been awarded a Hawthornden Fellowship to continue her work in environmental poetry and to write further versions after Francis Ponge.

Twitcher

With overripe fruits, cakes, the remains of a chicken
I’ve created a place, you could call it a garden,

for the miniature birds. Oh, their movements sing
as if someone granted them lungs for wings!

Enjoy the sights of the Sky-Tiger Dippers,
Blue-Buzzards, the bumble of Honey-Baggers

whilst I show you my favourites: the Vampire-Maids;
listen hard and you’ll hear in their serenades

a flickering of human speech that was sucked
into their six-legged bodies along with your blood.