under a sycamore with Keats

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Well, hello there, my dearest digial friends. I hope your April is full of bloom and restoration. Be most welcome. 🌻

After reading this week’s poem, if you’re so inclined, feel free to scroll down and check out some of the things happening in my world as I continue these adventures in writing. Now, on to some new poetry….

This week’s poem required a companion. And for this one, I had to involve Keats – unless I’d suddenly grown allergic to beauty.

And I mean Keats specifically, not just some vague dead poet with a pretty face and a tragic cough.

What draws me to Keats is that he never treats beauty like a surface.

With him, beauty always feels inhabited. Mortal. Pressurized by time. He doesn’t look at lovely things as though they exist outside suffering. He looks at them as though their passing is part of what makes them matter.

That has always felt true to me in a way few poets manage. Plenty can praise beauty. Keats understood why it wounds.

That is why he was the right companion here. He gives beauty consequence.

And I suppose that’s what I needed most while writing this piece: not a poet who would explain the world, dominate it, tidy it, or turn it into doctrine, but one who would stay tender before it.

One who knew that loveliness and sorrow live embarrassingly close together. One who understood that to be fully awake to beauty is also to feel the cost of being here at all.

That’s why Keats. Not because he was famous. Because he knew beauty doesn’t become weaker when shadow enters the frame. It becomes unbearable in the best possible way.

So here’s what I keep wondering: do we love beautiful things for their loveliness alone, or for the ache that comes with knowing they won’t stay?

As always, I look forward to hearing your thoughts, feelings, and reactions to this week’s poem in the “Leave a Reply” comment section at the very bottom of this page.

-PS Conway 🌷 🌷 🌷

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under a sycamore with Keats

caught up in my thoughts,
lost in the yielding drift of cloud-edges
trailing like a daydream smile.
the wind worries softly through the grasses,
sussing lilac-scented secrets;
once, we must have shared those verses,
but i can no longer recall the song.

the sycamore gathers me beneath her ancient arms
not as shelter, but something more tender,
like the pauses between breath and thought.
her leaves purr sweet summonings
to places only she remembers,
to the eastern gates of heaven
where she first birthed the sun.

oh, to know the joy in waking
to feel beauty, not as something seen,
but as thought transformed into wonder,
watching an eager petal tremble on still air,
float lazily down a slope, settle on a stone
that marks the one who sought it most,
who wrote of urns and autumn
yet never saw spring return.

in the shade of her boughs, i feel whole again
each leaf a childlike chorus in the choir of a moment.
i do not speak, what could i say of forgiveness?
feeling finds its voice in me.
the earth does not scold me for my absence
she only opens, and in doing so,
teaches me how to stay.

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This Week’s Links to my published work…

Media News…

*COMING SOON* Just finished my interview with Steve Cuden for his brilliant podcast StoryBeat – what a great conversation! It should air April 21 at Noon. More to come – but do check out Steve’s interviews with other writers and artists – https://www.storybeat.net/

*NEW* My interview with Editor-in-Chief, Gabriela Marie Milton of Literary Revelations Publishing House: https://literaryrevelations.com/2026/01/25/the-portrait-of-a-poet-ps-conway/  

*NEW* My interview with author Tricia Copeland on her podcast Finding the Magic Book is now available to watch: https://youtu.be/NhieYECI-H4  

Latest Publication News 

It has been a productive last few months for me. 7 POEMS published. If you are interested in a reading any of these, I have embedded the Amazon links below.

  1. My poem mercy will be published in The Ekphrastic Review on May 12. They are a literary “online journal devoted entirely to writing inspired by visual art. Their objective is to promote ekphrastic writing, promote art appreciation, and experience how the two strengthen each other and bring enrichment to every facet of life.”
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  2. My 3 poems – the wet centre is bottomless, laugh tracks, and three flights away – will be published in Mouthful of Salt in Issue #3 on April 27. They are “a Black-led literary journal dedicated to bold, boundary-pushing storytelling. Our editorial vision is shaped by a wide range of lived experiences, and we are committed to creating a space where writers from across the globe can be seen, heard, and celebrated.”
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  3. My poem the color of staying was published in the Spring’26 edition of PHIL LIT Journal on March 15. This literary journal “promotes writing that engages with philosophical, metaphysical, ethical, & existential themes; without sacrificing beauty, craft, surprise, or risk.” Please be sure to check it out.
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  4. I have 2 poems – paint and i have seen love do the same – published in The Belfast Review, Winter/Spring 2026. Based in the north of Ireland, this gorgeous emerging literary magazine, in addition to poetry, “aims to create a dialogue between the arts, featuring genres not usually included in literary journals such as song lyrics, plays, screenplays, and hybrid forms, to better reflect the lived experience of art, the self, and the city.”

Latest News – Life Sucks…

So far, Life Sucks has received so many ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Editorial Reviews. More to come soon.

I’m anticipating a whole bunch of solid Reader Reviews to begin populating Amazon in the next few weeks, too. The goal is to get to 50 Reader Reviews asap to kick Amazon’s promotion engine into a higher gear.

Speaking of Editorial Reviews, we secured a BIG ONE – BookLife. This is the indie press division of Publishers Weekly and represents a major credibility lift to my published work. Here is a link, in case you’re interested in reading the entire review:

https://booklife.com/project/life-sucks-memories-and-introspections-during-the-great-covid-lockdown-101267

And here are a few other snippets of other editorial reactions so far!

– “Snort-laughs and gasp-worthy wit – PS Conway goes there, and it’s hilarious.”

– “A must-read for anyone stressed, cynical, or just in need of a damn good laugh.”

– “Darkly funny, brutally honest, and weirdly comforting – like therapy, but with colonoscopies.”

🌷 COME BACK EACH WEEK FOR NEW POETRY 🌷

4 comments

  1. This is a beautiful and moving piece. I love how you describe the sycamore tree as a gentle, motherly figure that helps the speaker feel whole again. The way you connect the quiet beauty of nature to the memory of John Keats makes the poem feel both peaceful and deeply meaningful. Excellent work, P.S.!

    Reply

    1. Thanks so much, PS. Hard to pick your fav poems, it’s like picking fav children, but if I was pushed? This would be one of my favs. It hits my “feels” squarely in the bullseye 🎯 really thrilled you liked it so much. Cheers, my friend ! 🙏🏻💙🥂🌹💕

      Reply

  2. Oh so beautiful PS …..
    to hear the whisper of the trees
    to walk through drifts of fallen leaves
    to stop and sit and simply be
    in the place where I belong. A we ode of mine, I adore trees.
    🙏🙏🍀🍀🌳🌳

    Reply

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