poetry « Jo Dolby

Tagged: poetry

Jul 25

Chimes Anthology

I was very excited to see this book out in the wild as I browsed the bookshops of Bath recently! Chimes is a brilliant monthly poetry event that runs in the back bar at The Bell on Walcot Street in Bath. Lots of incredible poets headline and there is always the opportunity to sign up for an open mic slot. It’s a wonderful mix of people and I love that it provides a supportive and encouraging environment for new poets, as well as an established platform for more experienced poets to perform.

It was the first ever place I drummed up the courage to perform one of my poems, so I’m really pleased to have recently joined the team, and to have a poem in their recently published anthology which is pictured below. You can buy a copy at Chimes events, from Mr B’s Bookshop in Bath and in store and online at Magalleria. Follow Chimes on Instagram here.

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Jun 22

Fringe Arts Bath 2025

Three of my poems were featured in the 2025 Fringe Arts Bath festival, which consisted of several exhibitions spread over venues in the city centre of Bath between 23rd May and 7th of June. Fringe Arts Bath describe themselves as “Bath Fringe Festival’s cheeky little sister”, and provide a platform for early career curators and emerging artists.

My work featured in an exhibition called ‘Gentle Words Fall upon Loving Ears’, designed to be “an open love letter presenting work that captures the true beauty found within the domestic everyday life of queer relationships”. I really liked the idea of being part of an exhibition that celebrated the joy and everyday normality of queer relationships, rather than something necessarily focused on discrimination, prejudice or LGBTQ+ rights (although that type of work is really important). I chose three poems that I felt best fitted the theme, and whilst they were just for this exhibition (and my wife!) you can read or hear me perform one of them here.

The exhibition was curated by Ashley Cerrino, who chose to set the exhibition up like a living room, with artist’s work posted on the wall, a fridge, a TV screen, and performed through a queer poetry night. Ashley also included fridge magnets showing pictures of some of the artists and their partners, which was a lovely touch!

It was a privilege to be a part of, and a new experience for me to see my work displayed in this form. I’ve only ever showcased my poetry on a page, social media post or through performance, so to see several pieces printed large, framed and hung was really new for me! I helped out with invigilating one day, and it was wonderful to see people interacting with the exhibition and the work that was part of it. It inspired me to think more about how I merge some of the art forms I practice in, having had a desire to do this for a while now. I have tended to keep photography, film and poetry separate, but I hope over the next year I’ll get chance to play with mix these up a little more. A huge thank you to Ashley and Fringe Arts Bath for the opportunity!

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Posted in Poetry poetry

May 24

Enough For Now

One of my favourite things about Spring, is that moment when you first notice things starting to change – the beginning of the shift in seasons. Those moments are fuel for hope, proof that brighter days are coming, signs that point to a future where things blossom and bloom. This poem is about that. The words are typed out below the image if you need them.

Is there anything more beautiful?
Than the first bit of bud on branch.
The fleck of green in the dark damp soil.
The crack of a seed that will be a tree.

Is there anything more comforting?
Than the curtain of light as the closed door creeks open.
The silhouette of promise as sun peers out from cloud.
The slow fade from darkness to light.

Is there anything more joyful?
Than the first saying of your name by the child you made.
Or first baby steps. Hands that hover but go unheld.
The learning that becomes relearning or unlearning.

Is there anything more amazing?
Than the size of the seed that becomes the mustard tree.
The yeast that makes the whole thing rise.
The spark that starts the flame.

(It’s enough.
It’s enough.
It’s enough for now.)

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Posted in Poetry poetry

Sep 14

Stay

I really wanted to write a poem for World Suicide Prevention Day. I wanted to write something that might speak to someone who is struggling (if that’s you, there’s some helpful stuff here) with suicidal thoughts, without saying anything really heavy or depressing. You could read this poem and not know what it’s about – I deliberately don’t mention any words related strongly to suicide or suicidal ideation. But, if you need to know what it’s about, you will.

My experience has shown me that sometimes, someone in that situation is way beyond reasons to stay alive, cliches or intellectual arguments about why it’s better to stick around. They’re numb to how it will impact others or they believe it’s actually better for others if they’re not around anymore. They’re exhausted. All you can do is slow everything down and try to get them to think about the next day, the next hour, the next ten minutes even, and hope that something distracts or comforts long enough for those feelings to pass. Something like a book, a flower, looking at the sky, a meal you know they love. Sometimes, it just works.

This poem also takes on way more meaning when you’ve tried my chunky beef chilli. Honestly I don’t usually like to brag, but it is amazing.

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Posted in Poetry poetry

Jun 29

The Nod

Pride month draws to a close this weekend, so I thought I’d post this poem as a thank you to all those who have gone before me, and made my path safer as a result. I know I have a responsibility to keep making it safer for the generation after me, and I hope I am doing that in some small way. The poem is called The Nod, and the words are below if you need them.

We were walking in town my wife and I,
When an older gay couple caught my eye.
For a moment as they walked right by,
One looked straight at me, nodded and smiled.
I nodded right back and then thought as I walked,
How those nods weren’t just nods they were so much more…

A representation, a kind of me too,
A way of saying there are others like you.
That the path has been made and you’ll find your way,
That you’re not on your own, you’re not walking alone.

An affirmation of the love we’ve all found,
Shouted from rooftops without making a sound.
A celebration of love that was formed through struggle,
Refined by fire, flowers pushing through rubble.

A thank you for all you had to go through,
The battle you fought just to be you.
Your fight means I can be who I am,
That I can walk with my wife hand in hand.

I hope you remembered as you walked past,
That because of you every ceiling has smashed.
Please know that in us your legacy lasts,
That all you hoped for has come to pass.

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Mar 24

Our Love Story* (*as told by WhatsApp)

It was my 8th wedding anniversary recently (11 years together!) and I was inspired to write this by another social media post I’d seen. If you press play below you can hear me introducing the poem which will help it to make sense! I really like how this poem captures the love in its most ordinary sense, the everyday, mundane moments alongside the life-altering, earth-shattering ones, good and bad.

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Posted in Poetry poetry

May 24

Hall Pass

I’m in my primary school hallway
Council coloured walls and closed doors
Between classrooms standing on coffee stained floors
A gateway

Lessons are in session but I’ve got the principal’s blessing
A hall pass of sorts permission to explore
To wander and ponder and search for more
An adventure

I’ve never been out of place in these liminal spaces
Always sat on the edges always outside the fences
Finding friends as I walk this way – a kid sent out, another running late
Familiar faces

Did I mention I stole that hall pass while in detention?
An open store cupboard door I just couldn’t ignore
It was a dance between chance and circumstance
Divine intervention

So when they try to keep you confined
When they insist you must fit and colour inside the lines
Resist it and show them a different existence
A life undefined

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Posted in Poetry poetry

May 01

#NewProfilePic

This spoken word poem below was inspired by this photo, taken by my wife while we were on a weekend away recently.

It became more than a photo and took on a deep meaning for me – how sometimes just smiling and living fully are acts of rebellion against all the despair and hopelessness we can sometimes experience in our lives or read about on the news. Not many of us have had an easy time in the last few years, and sometimes it’s just lovely when a moment of joy like this is captured.

I hope it inspires you to be you, to recognise joy when it finds you, to live fully, and to love your imperfections and quirks! The full words to the poem are below the film if you need them.

I uploaded a new profile pic today,
The one I made you take.
The one where I sat with my back to those cool wooden slats and you made me laugh,
Reminiscing about that clip from that show on Netflix.
I realised how brilliant it is to exist.
How existence is resistance to all the shit-ness I’ve witnessed,
My smiling an uprising an insistence of aliveness.

I uploaded a new profile pic today,
The one I made you take.
No I’m not holding a mic and it’s not with my wife or my kids,
Ok I don’t have any but if I did,
They wouldn’t be in a picture or a visual description of me,
They wouldn’t define who I am or who I can be, don’t you see?
I’m enough when alone I have worth on my own.

I uploaded a new profile pic today,
The one I made you take.
Light is shining right above my head,
A reminder a spotlight on the good times ahead,
Or the divine guidance and kindness that’s been mine every step.
There’s a part like a shard that’s pierced the darkness,
Just a shimmer just a glimmer but it still softens the starkness.

I uploaded a new profile pic today,
The one I made you take.
It shows my tattoos including the one that’s still new,
Like me not yet healed and it’s partly concealed its design not quite yet fully revealed.
If you zoomed in you’d see wrinkles and dimples, crinkles and pimples, imprints on my skin,
But these marks are battle scars I’ve made my peace with.

I uploaded a new profile pic today,
The one I made you take.
And okay I’ll spend way too much of my day, having a play in Photoshop
But I won’t change, rearrange or display what I’m not.
Maybe a filter is needed, some aligning and refining,
Some shifting and lifting and colour defining.
But this picture will still be the real me,
Both who I am now and who I’m trying to be.

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Posted in Poetry, Uncategorized poetry

Mar 30

Holding Hope

Hope is heavy.
Sometimes I cannot hold it.
My arms ache with the weight of it.
I have to let it go,
Let it drop to the ground,
Embrace the free-fall.

In the letting go,
In the slow motion of the fall,
I notice someone who loves me,
Catching it, holding it, protecting it.
Keeping it safe,
Until I am strong enough to hold it for myself.

What else can love be?
We hold hope for each other,
When we cannot hold it for ourselves.
We raise it high above our heads,
We become the searchlight, the beacon, the lighthouse.
Until the darkness lifts.

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Posted in Poetry hope poetry

Feb 18

Unravelling

I keep thinking at the moment about the word unravel/unravelling, and how it has so many distinct meanings. When something is unravelling it can be hugely destructive as it comes apart and is destroyed, perhaps never being able to be put together in the same way or for the same function. There are also positive meanings, perhaps an unravelling being an unveiling or revealing of something that was previously hidden or unseen. I think an unravelling also provides the opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of the parts of something and what makes it work. This poem is about trying to capture some of those different meanings, particularly how they might relate and apply when our own lives feel as if they are unravelling.

I am unravelling,
I wonder what kind of unravelling it will be.

Will I come apart at the seams,
Insides split open, completely revealed.
A deconstructing disruption,
A rupture, a ruction,
A demising, dismantling, total destruction.

I am unravelling,
I wonder what kind of unravelling it will be.

Will I sever, untether what I know should never
Have ever been threaded together,
A separating, a disintegrating.
Remaking, replacing,
They start with a breaking.

I am unravelling,
I wonder what kind of unravelling it will be.

Will I finally start to see,
As all that’s concealed is gently revealed.
A code that’s cracked after loads of hard graft,
Unfurling, unfolding,
The veil drawn back.

I am unravelling,
I wonder what kind of unravelling it will be.

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Posted in Poetry poetry

Tagged: poetry

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