Verity grew up in Dorset, writing poetry from a young age. She completed her BA in English and Drama at Royal Holloway, University of London before undertaking the MA Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, where she used her work as a healthcare assistant to inform and inspire her collection The Dying Eye, from which these poems are selected. She is currently studying her second MA in Acting at East 15 and hopes to continue with both poetry and acting, in parallel, to the mutual benefit of both crafts.
The Dying Eye explores the psychological and emotional effect of caring on the poet, and aims to tackle the social taboo that continues to surround care homes. Structured around a twelve-hour shift, it weaves together three holistic strands of poems: narratives, landmarks (indicated by the riff line: ‘Summer is over and the man down the hall is dead’) and the dying eye strand (which focuses on a young artist gone blind from multiple sclerosis). The poems open the doors of the home, and reveal the gentleness and love, as well as the anger and fear experienced when caring for people.
Verity-Williams