Girls in the City by Charlie Bowden
"‘Girls in the City’ was inspired by stereotypical social media posts of life in the city which are frequently mocked as being almost oblivious to the real world; I sought to turn that on its head by presenting them as the only ones who felt happy in a world of doom-mongers. It underwent numerous revisions as I tweaked the idea but eventually I decided to leave it because otherwise it would soon lose the essence of that original idea.”
Andalusia by Charlie Bowden
“‘Andalusia’ was a (rare) poem I had the title for before I had the words as I wanted to write material inspired by the names of locations, buildings and people to see what it would draw out. Other poems in this series were named after things I was more familiar with but I chose Andalusia just because I was intrigued by the name and after writing I wasn't sure if writing about a place I had little knowledge about was worth anything, though later I realised it still had merit even just as a response to the emotions drawn up from the name and the limited research I did on the area.”
Menlove Avenue by Charlie Bowden
“‘Menlove Avenue’ was a poem concept I had floating around for a while after I saw that John Lennon titled one of his albums after the street he grew up on during a Wikipedia binge. After writing it felt odd to have a poem that had essentially nothing to do with my original inspiration but eventually I figured that sometimes art just works that way.”