[Creative Nonfiction] Transcript of Crown & Coronations Podcast with Toby Crown and Poet Miriam Feye (Episode 1)
Read the winning entry for our week of April 27, 2025 prompt, An Artist's Coronation
Transcript of Crown & Coronations Podcast with Toby Crown and Poet Miriam Feye (Episode 1)
by Sally Hewitt
TC: Good morning listeners, thank you for joining me, Toby Crown, for your weekly dose of Crown and Coronations. Today my special guest is poet Miriam Feye, aged eleven. Her poem, The Storm, recently earned Best in Class and today we discover where her inspiration for this winning piece came from.
Miriam, hello and thank you for taking time out from your summer holidays to share your story with us.
MF: Hello, thank you for having me. I don’t really like the summer holidays; we have a weekend in a caravan and that’s it so it’s nice to have something to do. Sometimes the social takes me to nana’s and that’s when I write so I don’t really mind.
TC: (clearing his throat). Yes, indeed, you’re already using life experience as writing inspiration – some authors take decades to achieve that.
MF: (MF Chuckles) My words just come out. (MF chuckles again). Like the other day when I called dad a drunken pig and he slapped me. The stinger was worth it just to get the words out. They’d been going round in my head for ages, driving me mad. Words come in. I get them out.
TC: (Mumbles, indiscernible) Maybe you could have written them down instead?
MF: I don’t do that at home because last time I wrote a poem he ripped it up and burned it. I only write when I’m at nanas or school now.
TC: (clearing his throat) The Storm and it’s beautiful first line… Everything’s-
MF: - silent, birds hide away, air cooling down, love starts to play. That line’s about the peace when he’s out. I can… breathe. If mum’s alright – me and her are the birds - we’ll play scrabble. I’m good at scrabble. The air cooling down bit is because we open the windows when he’s out. I almost chose the word God instead of love, but they mean the same anyway and not everyone believes in God.
TC: Indeed, indeed they don’t. And that line from your second verse, the one that begins Thunder booms-
MF: - lightning flashes, dog starts howling midst rain spatters, clashes. That’s about them fighting. He comes in, slams, shouts, swears. He throws things, shoves, spits when he’s shouting in your face. Mum’s a howler. (MF Chuckles). She scares our cat out.
TC: That’s a lot going on in one line.
MF: Thunderstorms are noisy. Lightning strikes cause fires, kill people. Rain makes things messy. (Pause). Better afterwards that’s for sure, you know when it’s stopped.
TC: Ahh… the rainbow you mean?
MF: (Laughs gently) Kind of. (Pause). But there’s no pots of gold. Just the clearing up to do. (More gentle laughter). And finding the cat.
TC: Fascinating. Thank you, Miriam. Sadly, our time is up. Listeners, tune in next week to hear more from Miriam including her full recital of The Storm - you won’t want to miss it.
MF: (Whispers) Do I get my free pen now?
A Note From Our Guest Judge,
This piece simultaneously unsettled and delighted me; I finished it feeling disturbed yet strangely at peace—just what truly spectacular writing should do. These words will stay with me for a long time, they encapsulated the pain and beauty of the creative life so well.
About Sally Hewitt
Sally was born in the black, peaty Fenlands of Norfolk, UK in 1961. She says her first love, naturally, was and remains potatoes. Writing comes a close second.
She is author of two, specialist educational books, has worked as a regional newspaper correspondent submitting a weekly, community-based column, also winning reader's letters, articles and fillers.
After a long career in education and then a nomadic lifestyle, Sally still writes words and eats potatoes but currently in Morocco.
This piece was written in response to the prompt An Artist’s Coronation.