Showcase: What The Soul Wants + One Versus Many + Dancing In The Wild + New Way Of Being + Evolution In The Kitchen

Edited by Mary Walsh

Hello and welcome to my first Showcase. Over the next four weeks I’ll be sharing a mix of poetry, prose and art on the theme of (R)Evolution or revolution.

There have been many revolutions over the centuries. Change takes place to transform society’s class, state or religious structures.

Embarking on creative endeavours may be your own private evolution; doing those things you always wanted to do. Embracing change. Moving on from how you were then to how you are now. Were you a shrinking violet but became a stinging nettle?

The first piece I’m sharing is a poem I wrote using a marvellous prompt book by the poet and teacher Josef Fasano, called Magic Words.

What The Soul Wants

This is what the soul wants. Newness
These memories, this life
This wellness
The sound of birds singing
in the verdant leafy canopy
My own voice like a new and reborn child
My own body like a new conduit for nature
I used to hide from the world
I had to come this far to find my peace
Now I think I will never leave
Even when I go I will bring peace with me
These memories, this life, this tranquillity
I have come this far to find the real me.

(c) Mary L Walsh, 2025

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My next choice is a poem from Danny Baxter. In this extract, he talks about how the many can come together to make real change. Many revolutions start with a single voice!

One Versus Many

Conflicts and wars are often waged between collectives,
Gangs and tribes,
We band together for strength in numbers,
Not one but many.
Safety amongst the herd,
More boots on the ground,
An increase in Might makes and increase in right,
And increase in our rights,
To amplify our common cause,
To reinforce our presence atop a platform,
We lend our voices and resources,
Affirmations and Approvals,
Signatures, and protest.
Every word within the core message multi-fold in its expression,
Adding weight to each utterance or inscription.
The advantage of resonance.
To broadcast this message that is supported by a status quo,
The message simplified and streamlined into strap lines and catchphrases,
The objective is straightforward,
The justification succinct,
Everyone unified with the same script,

(c) Danny Baxter, 2025

Connect: Instagram @dan_lbbd

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Here, Amaka Felly Oboiji talks about the quiet revolution that takes place with grief. While grief is full of pain and loss, which we feel deeply, eventually we evolve into acceptance and start to live again.

Dancing In The Wild

When there is nothing to feed grief,
no sorrows, no tears, no languish.
It dies like wild plants trampled
on a morning run in the fields.

It takes a shadow of itself and slowly it withers.
Now, darling, it is time to dance in the wild.

Your feet in circular rhythms with earth,
your eyes filled with wind from swaying trees.
It is time to live again.

(c) Amaka Felly Oboiji, 2025

Connect: Instagram @amaka_felly

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The next piece, by Azmina Sohail, is about a sculpture by Umberto Boccioni, an Italian Sculptor. In itself, a revolution in the world of art.

In 1913 Italian artist Umberto Boccioni created Unique Forms of Continuity in Space, a modernist sculpture born from the Futurist movement.

Currently housed in Sao Paolo at Museum of Contemporary Art, it’s a replica of the human body in motion, sprinting forward at full speed in the style of motion blur. Boccioni’s piece is a celebration of dynamism and force that could supposedly extend the possibilities of human existence. The posthumous bronze casts have since become emblems of Boccioni’s Futurist belief which was centred on moving beyond the art and scholars of the past to embrace the world through the lens of technological advancement, automation, speed and warfare. Its manifesto was manic and inflammatory, boasting the desire to worship machinery, find resolutions through war and violence whilst propagating the hatred of women:

“Let us leave good sense behind like a hideous husk and let us hurl ourselves, like fruit spiced with pride, into the immense mouth and breast of the world!”

It has occupied a significant part of my memory ever since I saw it at the Tate Modern, not because I agreed with Boccioni’s ideas but because of the darkness it held, particularly for us writers. Futurism was ultimately a rejection of the past in favour of the technological possibilities Europe possessed; a renouncement of Impressionism and Romanticism which were their own responses to modernity through the natural world and art. They were movements which brought us the subjectivity of Monet, introduced us to the sublime through Wordsworth and the mythological questions of the Renaissance. It was art that had been preserved for the good of humanity; tangible beauty that forced us to step outside of ourselves into something transcendental. Boccioni’s desire to rid of this ‘gangrene’ was a dangerous step. In my view, it signified the erosion of human emotion, creative expression and ultimately the nature of human consciousness itself.

Take a closer look at the sculpture; the intricacies of the human body are not simply blurred with motion but absent. The facial features are distorted, the arms fold in on themselves and the head is structured in a half-formed bulge. The only way the human form is at all recognisable is through its silhouette. In my view, this complete subjugation of the human body to speed and technology isn’t improvement at all but the altering of our functions as we know it. ‘The medium is the message,’ as McLuhan most famously said.

Though Boccioni eventually died during the First World War in a riding accident, work has continued to live on. To me, it marks a warning to those looking to revive the Futurist ideals. To rid the world of ‘antiquaries’ is to rid the world of its humanity.

Our ability to think freely and create is what separates us from the machine, no matter how far it evolves. Progression isn’t about speed but human proficiency; there is a reason why speed comes with a limit and our cities still house artistic pasts. In our hearts we are Impressionists, Romantics, thinkers and artists drawing from wisdom past. We are not simply ‘Unique Forms’ but ‘Wanderer’s’ above the Sea of Fog.

(c) Azmina Sohail, 2025

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My final piece comes from The Boathouse Studio Poet Laureate, Eithne Cullen, who writes about the evolution of food in our kitchens.

Evolution In The Kitchen

We didn’t know we were part of a revolution
with Katie crumbling Oxo cubes and Bisto’s aaahs.
Our seasonal veg all boiled and mashed,
all our fried food in dripping or lard…
olive oil for earache, not for the pan
and garlic was in Dracula, pungent repellent
not healthy flavouring, hinting of the exotic.

Each plate arranged with meat, two types of veg:
cabbage and carrots, mostly, boiled
within an inch of their vitamin rich existence.
Chops fried, joints carved by our dads.
Autumn was the time for fruit:
pies, jams, fillings … no one had heard of jus
or coulis, then. Revolution came with
spaghetti bolognaise and the arrival of the Pizza Hut.
What could it be? This new, exotic food…
but gross, you ate it with your fingers!

Seasonal food went out and year -round
strawberries became a thing.
Tomatoes no longer needed greenhouses;
peppers, courgettes, aubergines came
onto our plates, into our lives. And who’d
have known the perfect weaning food…
the avocado, unheard of in our babyhood.

(c) Eithne Cullen, 2025

Connect: Instagram @eithnecullen57

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I hope you have enjoyed this selection. Your own type of revolution turns into an evolution in life.

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You can hear great new ideas, creative work and writing tips on Write On! Audio. Find us on all major podcast platforms, including Apple and Google Podcasts and Spotify. Type Pen to Print into your browser and look for our logo, or find us on Podcasters.Spotify.com.

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