Anna Somerset
Like many, Anna has had bouts of depression. The sudden loss of a friend set off a bout of poetry writing and Survivors Poetry has been a beacon of hope and happiness, enabling her to find her voice as a performance and on the page poet. She was able to enjoy Survivors in its Poetry Café incarnation, before meeting kindred spirits online in the zoom lockdown days. Anna is a trustee of Survivors Poetry and is a regular performer on the London Poetry scene. She is also a member of Greenwich Poetry Workshop. read more…
Envoy from the Croned!
Monocrone!
Pantycrone!!
Kodachrone!!!
Supercrone!!!!
I’m confessing age is a blessing.
Long in the tooth?
Tell the truth
I’d refuse millions
To re-run my youth.
Forget the make-up
The tweezers too,
Share my inner werewolf
And my outer one too.
Youth is over-rated
Its benefits over-stated,
Cronehood is fine
Now the hormones have abated.
Blotted my copybook
So you can’t see the mess,
Tampons in landfill
And mooncup useless
But fighting spirit
Is afire nonetheless.
Gormless worries
About what everyone thought;
Give me a break, youth
It counts for nought,
Tiresome, constantly
Doing the things you ought.
I’m fitter than I was
And now the hormonal fug has gone
I’m master of my destiny
And mistress second to none.
You say I can’t and I’ll say I can.
Gauntlets on!
Rings around my trunk!
Unlikely to be drunk!
Older and wiser
And still a bit punk!
And the message
Of this upbeat durge
Is when it comes to oldies
Desist from the purge,
The human race needs
Cronepower!!!!!
We’re not its scourge!
… Anna’s first collection, From the Doggerlanders was published in 2024 by London Poetry Books. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Doggerlanders-Anna-Somerset/dp/1911232517 The title poem appears as first in an audio anthology: Talking Stories Anthology about the Sea. https://www.mixcloud.com/EastLondonRadio/talking-stories-86/
Anna was on the Morecambe Poetry Festival programme in 2025 and her poetry comedy, Two Birdes in the Hande, in which she co-stars with Heather Mary Sullivan premiered at the Women Writers Festival at the etcetera theatre Camden, followed by Chesham Fringe.
Anna’s poem Bernadette is Behaving Badly won a prize in the Bermondsey and Beyond Poetry Festival in 2025 and a poem about her garden was a finalist and published in the International Shepton Snowdrops competition pamphlet in 2026. Born Remembering by Spelljar Press 2026 includes three poems by Anna, and Rough Diamond Press are publishing Rejection on Repeat in their Mental Health Anthology in 2026. Here is a film poem about polluted water https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhI8mwCyrMs
Anna found her voice in later life and she is a great advocate for accepting the age you are and making the most of it.
instagram @somersetanna