I am the author of three poetry books “Butterfly Kisses and a Bee Sting Mind” 2014, “Healing Garden” 2016 and “Spirit Cracked not Broken” 2017 and Between Aurora and Twilight 2020.
Between Aurora and Twilight is prose not poetry and this collection is about my lone walks, my childhood walks and my thoughts all wrapped in nature, sun rises and sun sets.
Quotes on ‘Between Aurora and Twilight’
From my Cousin Bev Winn
“Julie my lovely lady, I am reading your book and your words and descriptions are bringing me such joy and comfort. I suffer with anxiety and depression and reading your book has been a light. I would love to walk the Camino but my knees and hips are not good. I feel I am with you with every word on this literature journey, seeing the ponies and the birds in flight, the frost and the sunshine and the stars in the night sky. Thank you Julie I think you were a woodland healer in a previous life”
Review from Author of “No Dogs, No Blacks, No Irish” Ruby Lord
“As I read the book it struck me what a beautiful world we live in. If we can walk outside, listen to the birds and watch the season’s change we get nearer to nature. With UK lockdown, we have the time to get to know our streets, lanes, roads, the areas we’ve taken for granted. Read this and touch nature’s images. Julie’s words stress the miracles around us in an almost religious way. When I read about walking Hadrian’s Wall in five days, I was so jealous; I had to go for a (short) walk. A lovely book interspersed with difficult lessons in her life. Reading, writing and walking takes us to the places no one else can reach. I had a great trip.”
A review “Between Aurora and Twilight by Alys Parry author of “Call of the Mountain”
“Between Aurora and Twilight I liked very much made me happy and sad. Your images and the descriptive writing of your walks and your knowledge of nature, brought it alive for me and you are so brave and honest about your feelings.”
A review on “Between Aurora and Twilight” from writer and publisher Debbie Price.
“The Healing Power of Nature
A beautiful and descriptive account of walking with nature and fully appreciating every
moment. Although written in prose her poetic words capture the beauty of the countryside
she walks and the wildlife and characters she meets along the way. Injected within the text
are snippets of past traumas that impress upon the reader how being at one with nature
has helped her to heal. Her honesty is admirable, it is not easy to share bad things but
when you do, as she does, the burden lightens and allows the person to become less
vulnerable. In writing this the author is encouraging others to also use the natural world to
heal.”
Quote from author Alan Roderick.
“This charming and delightful book could just as easily have been entitled A Year In The Life, spanning as it does the months between December and November, or Walks With Julie. And what walks! We accompany the author as she braves Hadrian’s Wall and travels part of The Pilgrims’ Way in Spain; we get to know the people she encounters and feel for her as she loses her way in Spanish towns or gets sucked into a quagmire not far from her Bargoed home. The narrative is peppered with fascinating references to nature lore and flowers, birds, plants and butterflies. She tells of cuckoos fighting and vultures flying high but underpinning the book is an underlying sadness as she recalls memories of her, sometimes, less than idyllic childhood. Julie Pritchard is a poet who writes from the heart and this is a book to savour, again and again, for walkers and non-walkers alike.”
‘Spirit Cracked not Broken’ Is about abuse and how writing on abuse can help erase the memory and lay the emotion surrounding the memory to rest.
Quotes
Poet and Playwright Patrick Jones “Spirit Cracked not Broken is pretty amazing Julie. I felt your voice so strong in the images and words. So powerful, raw, honest, brutally honest. It is true poetry you took me on a journey, into a life into darkness, into glittering smiles and breaking hearts”
Wonderful quote from Socialist and poet Ian Thomas who was at my reading on Monday 7th August
A big thank you to Julie Pritchard who launched her new collection of poetry ‘ spirit cracked not broken’ in the capel in Bargoed tonight. Extremely powerful and moving , if art is meant to move you emotionally this succeeds big time, as a compliment the last time I felt similar feelings was after watching ken loaches film ‘ the wind shakes the barley’ in the cinema, Julie’s poetry is as Patrick Jones writes ‘so powerful. Raw. Honest’ thank you Julie.
1961 Cocooned inside your womb
Immobilised, defenceless,
alarmed by the churning of your belly
thump, thump of your heart beat.
Your nervous system crashed into me
I fell into the light and cried for the safety
of your womb.
Put into the arms of despair
shared the breast with my elder brother.
Healing Garden is a collection on self healing. We all have a deep well inside us all to dip into and heal.
Playwright and poet Patrick Jones
“Enjoy your reading you are an accomplished performer of your words and I admire how you showed yourself in your life’s journey with us. Enjoying “Healing Garden”
Spanish academic Inaki Sanchez.
The poems in “Healing Garden” reflect the soul and I like the way you move from describing nature scenes to spiritual”
Poet and Writer Jeremy Hooker
“Julie’s second collection of poetry is an emotional journey inspired by nature and people. It is beautifully written and full of imagery. I enjoy Healing’s freshness of your heart-felt poems. You honour the place where you live. Which I believe is an essential thing for poetry”
Jim Davies Red Poets reviewer gave me a wonderful review on my latest collection Healing Garden.
“Healing Garden” by Julie Ann Pritchard (BBTS.2016)“Julie is a great favourite at the Imp Merthyr. We love her singing her graceful movements and her passionate words I welcome this chance to comment on her new book”
Now why would one walk year upon year in all seasons and all weathers around the Common above your valley’s village? Julie does that; not to walk the dog or keep fit or names the mosses. Nor is it to worship God; never mentioned even on Christmas day tramp.
But he/she (some deity) does seep into her Bargoed hinterland of green pastures, purple headed hills….. and a Celtic Cross.
Around 1750 in a valley or so to the north William Williams (wrote in Welsh) of the “crystal fountain” and its “healing streams”
In this collection Julie writes of the therapeutic qualities of her own moorland that relieve her stress and make her whole: the soft turf, the unruffled sheep, the windblown wildlife and the lashing rain. And this is her healing place, she acknowledges the great calm of isolation whilst also enjoying brief exchanges with the occasional local person.
I walk on your
soft grasses
you move me
to a serene place
(Extract taken from poem “Return”)
Red Kite floats on high
below a murder of crows
Screeching squawking warning the
red, rouged beauty.
(Verse taken from poem “Ancient Pagan”)
Now the Healing Garden is ten miles by 2, so what Julie’s inner garden? Her heart and soul? Her neural seat of memory and emotions, her Hippocampus less than a thimble in size which receives new daily assaults and trauma from her past.
“Broken shards of trust splinter my thoughts
I miss my inner being my true core”
(A line from Humanity)
“Ache of abandonment
deep sense of loss I have no closure”
(Line from Forgotten)
“She goes to the pinny and breathes in her grandmother”
(Poem Pinny)
If you neglect your inner garden
and rake over the past
seeds of doubt will grow.
(Extract taken from poem Healing Garden)
Author and Poet Mike Jenkins.” Julie’s poetry is full of energy and compassion, and is a wonderful performer of her own work”
“Julie’s second collection of poetry is an emotional journey inspired by nature and people. It is beautifully written and full of imagery” Poet and publisher Deborah Price
http://www.amazon-co.uk/Healing-Garden-collection-poetrypritchard/dp/1523724811/ref=
Butterfly Kisses and a Bee Sting Mind
“Butterfly Kisses and Bee Sting Mind” the title came to me in a dream. This collection is about manipulation of the mind and not allowing anyone with their dirty feet to walk through your mind. Also nature poems.
Reviews “Butterfly Kisses and a Bee Sting Mind” A beautiful uplifting collection of poetry thought-provoking descriptive and full of innuendos, Julie paints a picture of a world full of enchanting charismatic characters, both mythological and real. Her love of nature shines through” D M Price
Photos and reviews of my performance poetry.
Performing at Dempsey’s Cardiff “A passionate reader of her own work”
Performing at Murengher Newport
Jemma Beggs 2014 “Julie Pritchard a passionate performer whose poems are full of strong visuals and raw emotions”
Chris Hall “Julie shows wonderful dancing delivery”
Interviewed by Martin Locock from Spoken Word Wales in Victoria Park, Neath, spring evening in April 2016. The interview is below.
http://www.podcastgarden.com/episode/sww009-julie-ann-pritchard_78713
Poems and thoughts from the walking poet 