Two Willows

My poetry is from the heart, it is about my family, my loves, my loss, my experiences, my hopes, my dreams and in many cases the small things that I have noted along the way. I hope you enjoy Two Willows - a tiny collection of poems.

Foreword written by Jan Sargeant

Justine Engelbrecht writes with a simplicity of style which is not only refreshing but which masks some of the very complex concepts about life with which she is grappling in many of her poems. She herself speaks of poetry as "stripping yourself bare" and that is certainly true of this collection, "Two Willows", an engagingly honest exploration of family, loves and losses, hopes and dreams.

Engelbrecht explores her own childhood with her late sister in the opening poem, which also provides the title for the collection, returning to the theme of childhood at times throughout, whether through her own memories or her insights as a mother into the lives of her children. In "The Wise Man", she offers us a glimpse in to what she sees as the wisdom of children and the lost innocence of their knowledge. The ache of loss seeps through this collection, but is never allowed to become over-sentimentalised. There is honesty and dignity in No Turning back" and profound inner reflection in "Breathe, he said, breathe" which is, I think, one of her best.

There are moments of real beauty and stillness in this collection such as the way she takes the reader on a whirlwind journey across the world before letting us settle with a duvet over legs, sipping Merlot from crystal glasses, and the way she feels a name "shivering from lips" in "Darling". She has the skill to use a description of a ripe tomato falling to symbolise the shift in seasons and all it offers.

Do not under-estimate this writer. This is a moving collection of poems which lay her feelings before the reader in unapologetic honesty. Engelbrecht offers us an insight into her grief here but also the love which shines through in every poem - her love of her children, her husband, and the way she dares to celebrate life and all it offers. If I need one word to sum up "Two Willows", it would be "rejoice".

Jan Sargeant is an established author living in England. She has an extensive catalogue of poems in a variety of literary journals, three books of poetry, one novel and its sequel coming out this year. She was a university lecturer before retiring in 2016 because of Parkinson's Disease. She has designed and delivered online courses in writing poetry and she is Emeritus Poetry Editor for 'The Quiver'. Her work can be found on Amazon.