Thing of Myth and Beauty

“You can be adored, or you can be a monster…”

Tickets for Manchester show

Tickets for London shows

Thing of Myth and Beauty is a show about queer love, sea monsters and justified, feminist rage told through ethereal, lyrical poetry and fiction. 

Alicia Fitton weaves together tales of heroines from Ancient Greece, teenagers from down the street, and girls from the office into a fierce and funny examination of what it means to be woman in public.

This show will appeal to fans of Ancient Greece and the Pre-Raphaelite movement, witchy women, angry women and anyone who has sometimes thought about being a tree.

So Tightly Wound

Its here! You can now buy my debut mini-collection of 22 poems on love, sex and lies from Amazon via Kindle or Paperback. The book includes several previously unpublished poems as well as favourites published on the website.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Tightly-Wound-collection-poems-ebook/dp/B08563TMPX

Description

This debut collection from Alicia Fitton is a lyrical exploration of the lies we tell ourselves about the sex we want and the people we long for. Her work flits like a summer romance telling stories through snapshots of erotic desire, wish fulfilment, guilt and the resulting heartbreak. Each poem is personal and intimate, inviting the reader into an emotional journey fraught with jagged edges.

Perfect for anyone who wants to fall in, or out, of love.

Validate

Labels written in a clear, neat hand.
Evidence held in little jars.

I note daily degredation of samples left:

  • The pride I placed upon my head
    To shout aloud your views expressed
    Bottled here, beneath my bed,

  • The hope I once wore as a badge
    Hammered to a rusting shield,
    Edges worn, and thin and sharp
    Trails its iron through my heart,

  • Joy that shone like glitter paint
    Suspended, hung amidst the fog
    It caught the light reflected from
    Your sense of self-entitlement.

I loved you. Not well but long
And now you slip and creep away.

Leaving me for someone young
A fresh experiment begun.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2019

Picture by Monicore

There continues a short interlude…

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted any new poetry on this site for a while. I’m currently working on several new pieces for submission to various publications as well as working on a pamphlet, Tightly Wound, currently scheduled for release February 2020. In case that wasn’t quite enough, I’m also developing a show, Thing of Myth and Beauty, which I hope to have ready for the end of next year.

Whilst you wait patiently (or impatentiently), please do have a scroll through the back catalogue.

If you would like more information about either project, please send me a message.

Olives

My love is spread about your feet
A banquet laid from which you pick
An olive placed between your toes
That drips pimento juice, then rolls
Across the floor
Beneath the couch,
Beneath your note,
Forgotten, lost
The moist remains between your toes
Salty, bitter,
Never sweet.

All Rights Reserved, Alicia Fitton 2019
Picture courtesy of Ponce Photography
If you liked this poem, you might also like Insubstantial

My Love is an Ocean of Guilt

My love is an ocean of guilt
Formed by the sweat that runs down her thighs.
Shaped by her lip, the white of her teeth,
Her smile that wriggles across the beach.

The incoming tide drowns my toes,
The skulls she painted with smiles and scorn
In red with silver, crystal eyes
She sparkles with the lies I’ve told!

Her love is an island of pain,
I tried to soothe with blissful breezes,
I tried a balm of clotted cream
The truth is out there, silver plated.

My love is an ocean of guilt,
I sail toy boats along its currents.
Her smile is worth a thousand cuts
From scattered shards of broken mirrors.

All rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2015

If you liked this, read Love?

Kickstart My Heart

Kickstart my heart with the beat of a drum
Crashed out with guitars halfway through the song
A ballard of love, an epic of loss
Map my life with your lyrics, a story of us.
Chart the rise and the fall, our great dance in and out.
Though I stand all alone, cos that party’s a rout
And your anger, your pain, your deep bitter regret
Cast their notes on my skin like the stain of a debt.
No room for debate, all your feelings for sale,
Your lies down on disc, my truth a betrayal.
Rip me up, brush me off, fly me eons away.
But the album persists, in its echoes you stay.
They map me with your lyrics, a woman declined.
And their spite filled with curses, I wish you’d been kind.
But that’s not how it played, and now I don’t need your song.
Cos the beat’s going forward.
Yes the beat carries on.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2018

Picture courtesy of Lincerta

To Trace Your Shape

Oh how I long to trace your shape
With inquiring fingertips
From fragile nape to hollow back
I stroke and watch
You stretch and buck.

You come with sighs and tiny moans
Sweet sounds that pull straight through my core
Like keys with strings tuned sharp and loud.
You moan, you pluck,
I clutch your hand.

Your skin so warm, but marble pale
And salted, wet with beads of sweat
And overwhelmed, I drink you in.
Like honey wine,
You taste sublime.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton 2018

Black Ink

I paint my name in broad dark strokes
And sweep the brush across your thighs
A shadow of the moment past
I sign my work with tiny sighs.
The ink I’ve made is black and thin
It dribbles down between your cheeks
The contract quoted whole in sin
The clause you begged me not to seek.
I will not cede my soul to you,
My heart, my cunt, not any part,
But I will write my letters large
Upon the atlas of your heart.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2018

Lemon Honey

Your words pour out my mouth
And trickle down my chin
You taste of lemon honey
Silent on my skin,
Your air a heavy cloud
Of droplets wet like rain
You taste of mallow sweet and
Sour cherry pain.

You say you love me
You say you love me
You say you love me
But I can’t stay the same.

Your words pour out my mouth
And trickle down my chin
You taste of lemon honey
Warm and slick like sin.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2018

If you liked Lemon Honey, you might like Secret
Picture courtesy of 4924546

Firelight Shy

There’s fire in your hair
As we sit down here talking,
A spark glowing brightly
Amongst growing dim.
Were I to touch it,
Would you judge me forever?
Are we matched?
Is it safe,
To say what I mean?

The wind blows so cold
But you smell of red leather.
Like the back of a bike
In cold winter air.
Would you hold me close
And ride over the country?
Do I love
Or envy
The place where you are?

Lips show such promise,
But I’ll not bite that cherry.
I won’t risk the foolish,
Discomforting quiz.
So I’ll back pedal
And cast hope to the ocean.
My basket
Forgotten,
Just friends with a wish.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2018
If you liked this poem you might also like Run Dry
Photo courtesy of Music4life

So Tightly Wound…

Unravel the knot of my desire,
These inconsistent locks of mine.
Ease the kinks,
Brush out the fire,
Polish my soul for lustre and shine.
Spread me out wide from head to my feet
From the tangle spin me so fine.
Hang me to dry,
Laid out so neat,
Give me reason to take what is mine.

All rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2018
Picture by Engin Akyurt
If you liked this, you might like reading Tell Me

Red Bikini Promise

Red bikini promise
On a solo swim
Checkered ocean laughing
Blue horizon win.

Bodies caught in motion
Kisses on the breeze
Love adrift and sinking
Tickets if you please.

Lapping at my fingers
Bubbles clothed in foam
Love a sunset promise
Far away from Home

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017
Picture by Comfreak
If you liked this poem, read Subtext

Wretched

Oh muse I have bartered and broken you.
I raised you aloft, while I sank so low
I gathered you in and knelt at your throne,
I turned you away and made myself stone.
Had I heart enough to hear your pleas
I could not resist, and yet, I’ll not yield.
Caught in a web of memory silent
I dream of silk stained with bright violet.
Your colours mute, your sadness inviolate
No more to speak, your heart tightly wired.
Love me once more, love me for a liar…
Oh muse, I have bartered and broken you.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton, 2017

Picture by Matvevna
If you liked Wretched, read Companion Piece

Moorland (Betrayed)

The wind blows cold
It shatters my bones,
And slivers of rain
Punch straight through my soul.
Sunlight forgotten,
Our map led me wrong.
Promised a landscape
You’d not said which one.
I am lost up here,
Alone on the fell.
Ground so uncertain,
You knew me so well.

All right reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

Picture by Alicia Fitton

If you liked this poem, read Pretending

Eraser

You speak as if you
Are the only fact,
As if your word is
The one worth hearing.
Your perspective so
Crooked and swollen
It eats us all, our
Poor truths forgotten.
I don’t know how to
Form an opinion
Righteous enough to
Defeat your madness.
But apathy flaming,
So angry I’m scalding.
I have my history
And I have my legends
My stories run swiftly,
I’ll stand and replace you.
You forget
I am human too.
You forget
that I am not you.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

picture by Alexas_Fotos

If you liked Eraser, read Hope – An old Campaigner

Pretending

Coincidence is no disguise
Its gauzy mesh does nothing
But hides the subtleties of crafted lies.
A lace pretence which falls in swathes
Noted by all alike.
The knowing glance, the “See that?” dig,
The “Fuck me!” smile, the “Just us” wink
Lead you down a well-lit path
The shadows thin, but still they dance.
We can see you flirting
We can all see you flirting.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked this, try Losing it…

Not putting up with this shit!

A paper storm to sink your myths
These false doctrines which prophets sip
They tell me how they see me wrong
My rage will strip and shame this song
The tracks of tears that burned my heart
The sting of salt, of bitter smart
They shut me down and turn the screw
I’ll bite my lip and bleed for you
We’ll muscle in and steal the truth
We’ll write our song and burn the roof
A paper storm to shred their myths
What use is life without the risks

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked this, try Hope – An Old Campaigner

Dryad

I’ve loved so far beyond my means
Last spring I gave her all my leaves
And I have grown so thin and worn
In bark I clothed her supple form
She begged for more.

In pirouettes her water flowed
Her summer hymn down rivers rode
And I forgot how fair folk morn
A splash of laughter from me tore
I begged for more.

I courted her with gifts of gold
The autumn sun shone bright, but cold
An apple jug, a doll of corn
A honeyed drink, an empty store
She begged for more.

Her beauty scored a frozen vein
My bare limbs bore the winter pain
I shiver now for love forlorn
I held her close to keep her warm
I begged for more.

She laid ways to keep me reaching
She laid waste to all my dreaming
So far I’ve loved beyond my means
The price was hope, and yet it seems
She begs for more.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked Dryad, read Companion Piece

Love?

I will sculpt my body
To match your heart’s desire.
I will bring you candles
To set my soul on fire

I will heed your wisdom
To bring you to my knees
I will keep your secrets
And lock them with my keys

I will bathe in snow flakes
To soothe your heated skin
I will stitch your pockets
To keep your dreams within

I will bring you knowledge
To pass off as your own
I will give you children
But I will take your throne

All rights reserved Alicia Fitton 2017

No, thank you!

These flowered verses have no pull
Upon my heart, they’re over full
Of pallid couplets, twee and dull
Your talk of sunsets makes me ill.

I will not be your goddess muse
upon a pillar; swift to bruise,
Yourself with Keats, do not confuse,
My life’s my own concern to choose.

I care not for your bleeding heart,
Your wound for Calliope’s art,
So grow a pair! You useless fart
And from my timeline, please depart.

All Rights Reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked this poem, read Moorland (Betrayed)

Losing it…

No innocent dream
She’s your guilty pleasure
A raw bloody wound
That just won’t heal over

Is she looking at me?
Does she see my soul?
Folding my pages
Humming her melody

Look how she rifles
Through layers of meaning
She’s cooking our books
The lasts an obscene one

Our recipe’s set
Does she watch us simmer?
Does she see my eyes
When your touches linger?

She cuts through the crust
and picks at our filling.
My metaphors mixed,
I’m losing my reason

Is she looking at me?
Does she see me whole?
Humming her melody
Eating my soul.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

Sea witch

The sea, her song is sweet
But she rages,
How she rages.
My love is in retreat,
A cage that stings my fingertips.
Her contrary deceit
But her kisses,
Such soft kisses,
Leave me quite replete,
My mistress runs aground my ship.
I go once more to meet
The rocky shore beneath her feet.
I go to make complete
The perfect storm of my defeat.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked Sea Witch, read Tell Me…

Reckless

She runs with ghosts and the patience of others
Through fields of regret where the grass cuts her legs
Past razors of guilt, of shrugged off compassion
She leaves muddy trails of blood, tears and sweat.
She holds no secrets, just stories in footprints
The ground when it echoes, beats close to her heart
Salt stings her face as sea spray washes over
A raw, angry wind has tangled her hair.
The taste of adventure will drag her under
She dives straight in with no thought of censure

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked Reckless read Waiting

Hope – An Old Campaigner

Your hull is torn, your canvas in tatters,
You’ve bartered the last coin for biscuits and rum
The looking glass shows you a care worn expression
But sail out once more, the hard work’s not done.

No turning back, the past is a stranger
The future’s familiar from legends we’ve told
A whisper leads onwards to map out the ocean
So set sail once more, be brave and be bold.

My love will anchor ships in the harbour.
My diligence settles the weather’s extremes
The cold bites my shoulder, but snowflakes won’t settle
So sail out once more and hope for your dreams

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2017

If you liked this poem, read Not putting up with this shit!

Rhythm and Motion

I stare
At the busy, boring pattern of the velour seat.
So many shades of brown
And not one of them a match
For the beauty of your skin.
I picture you beside me,
Long and lean
Smelling of spice and whiskey cream
I watch your nipple harden
And pucker the seam
Beneath your shirt.

I pause
And we drift into uncertain slumber.
You are no longer mine
Just another stranger.
A fingernail scratches
My upturned wrist
Clenching me tight
Your fingertips twitch,
And though you are distant
Absorbed in the window passing by
Your signal is clear.

Echo
Loudly breathless in an empty carriage.
Scared of their judgement
Their sideways glances.
Your hand caresses
Slipping down between
My knees, my thighs,
Outrageous, obscene
You throw your green
Coat over my caution
Always it seems
I come without trying.

All Rights Reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Rhythm and Motion, read The Calling…

Radio Silence

Airwaves crackle with restless energy
The static of hungry expectation
The length of never stretches on and on…

Waiting,
For the elastic to snap
Waiting,
For you to surge back to me

Beat upon beat of imagined whispers
Time upon moments, radio silence
A heartbeat murmurs, I crave you always

I wait,
And I dream of a phantom
You wait,
and the dream is unending

You said never, but I hear the pin drop
I can hear atoms part as you tumble
Falling towards me, echo resounding

Reaching,
I lean out across eons
Catch me?
And the silence continues.

All Rights Reserved -Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked this poem, read Run Dry

Kiss Me

I see your grin
And I know what you’re thinking,
I feel a flutter,
my nipples grow hard.
You stand so close
You seem to surround me
My care and attention
Have all gone so wrong
The threat of a kiss
On the tip of your tongue

Full of your scent,
The rasp of your stubble
Against my cheek and
My breast and my thigh.
Glorious love,
I draw you in closer
I want you to fill me
Push logic aside
I beg for a kiss
But you just spread me wide.

So close to you
And  too close to coming
The tip of your cock
A pleasure too far
I press myself
Now forwards towards you
You thrust up inside me
The tussle is won.
You kiss me just once
And we both come undone

All Rights Reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

Insubstantial

There’s a space on the page
A pause and a breath
The length unknown
Forever?
Or just a moment dawning?
A heartbeat gone?
A change felt
From then to this,
From you to us?
The press of air against my back
Substantial and heavy
The silence oppressive
Write what you will
Scribble me out
Again.
Always.
Empty.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Insubstantial, read Radio Silence

Companion Piece

In my eyes you are dark leaf and shadow
Bright gilded bronze, my messenger and muse
You lead me astray down paths of sweet sorrow
Tempt me to bargain a life that I’ll lose,
Muscle and marble, your touch like cold fire
You lead me straight past my twice daily sin
Mirrored temptation to whet dry desire
The crunch of an apple, the juice on your chin.
The vale of my heart grows ever sickly
The meadow beyond remains rich and green
I see our end, emerging so quickly
The clouds overhead sink down in between.
I’ll gather my thoughts, your heart on my sleeve.
Love me so hard that I can’t hear you leave.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked this poem, read Slot Gap

Nightmare

It bangs on the windows
and rattles down the stairs
It roils and it boils
and it always comes prepared

In the rain it lingers
a grin of teeth and tongue
It bides its life in corners
where sunlight never comes.

I can see its shadow,
a thin, translucent edge
Discordant voices singing
a hymn that echoes on.

Nightmare won’t you leave me?
My life is worn and thin
An anxious, guilty patchwork
I’ve lost the needle in.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Nightmare, read Word Shimmy

Save Me

Take the ribbon from my hair
Blood red against the bone white sheet
Tie it tight around your wrist
Strip the stockings from my feet
Cobweb shadows stain my legs
Constraints of pride and purity
Forgotten lengths of vanity
Peel the gloves from ‘tween my fingers
Stained with sweat and impure thought
Tattooed lace of moral stricture
Modesty for pity’s sake
Rip the dress from round my waist
Zipper bust and fabric rent
Fling it out into the street
Let them see me. Naked. Bare.

All rights reserved – Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked this, read Rhythm and Motion

Knowing better, doing it anyway

I am foolish, I’ve come out without my coat.
I am foolish, I’ve come out without my clothes.
The cold wind nips at the tips of my nipples,
Hairs on my skin shiver, quiver in the breeze.

The wisdom of waiting is far from my mind.
The wisdom of watching is far from sublime.
Give me a story, a poem or a glance
I’ll stand here forever, till you return my heart.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Knowing Better, doing it anyway, read Reckless

Stone of the Ages

A bold figure stands in the valley of shadow
A statue of rock between mossy walls
Circle her slowly, diamond of Rhea
Coiled in her carvings her message obscure

The golden chord struck and the standing stone echoes
Percussion of tremors felt deep below
Her pitch soars higher, song of the ages
Morning’s first glory to settle her maw

The sun rises east as the river flows silver
The sweet song trembles at movement inside
The rhythm unfurls, passion moves closer
Sing muse again of the beauty described.

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Rock of Ages, read Goddess

Slot Gap

There’s a slot in your life where your girlfriend fits.
That slot isn’t my slot, I’ll not be that woman.
The girl in the slot fits under your arm,
She is fashionable, passive, pretty and toned.

I will fill that slot with chewing gum and papier mache
I will rip at your edges and crack all your moulds.
My life is my own, my joy independent
I demand.
I won’t fit in that slot.

But still we’re committed, promised and glued,
To exorcise me you will need a space-time probability unravelling machine.
We are not a jigsaw puzzle,
There are no neat edges.
We are a continuum with a scribble in between.

All rights reserved, Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Slot Gap, read Radio Silence

Waiting

Asleep in your arms
I’m a drop in your ocean;
Encompassed, protected,
I love you so much.
Alone in this place
I’m a small piece of driftwood
I wait on the tideline
and miss you like fuck.

The sand feels soothing
Its seductive yet empty
A cold slab of marble
that anchors my soul.
Night falls too quickly
I should go someplace warmer
The wind blows dark patterns
Of sand on my legs.

Memories shift here
We’re dancing together
You hold me so gently
A gift wrapped in joy.
You kiss me goodbye
And return to your old life
Our currents that eddied
Drift back apart.

I’ve lain here for hours
Water lapping around me
The sea sprites cruel laughter
Like grit in my ears.
I know I should move,
but my energy’s long gone,
Wet splashes my shoulders
Spray brushes my lip.

Waves wash right over,
I rise and on turning
The sea is dark, empty
There’s none of you here.
Where are you dreaming?
Are in you the stormclouds?
If I stand here waiting,
Will you know where I am?

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton, 2016

If you liked Waiting, read Dryad

Cross Word

Bitter shouts
comments aside
12 down, begins with A
Divining rod measures your meaning
Our gaps hidden within the words
Ennui
The silence is spoken, broken, fragmented
The bones are picked, the blisters unburst.
Fear of consequence, terror of truth
Monologues written on the cave of our hearts
Cryptic clues
Return to start,
Don’t speak, don’t hurt, just bury it deep
Beware the scars the truth might leave.
Beware the answers written first.

All rights reserved. Alicia Fitton 2016

If you liked Crossword, read Sea Witch

Goddess

In your eyes I am blue sea and broad sky
Goddess of love, of fun, sex and sweat.
In your eyes I’m glorious and powerful
Queen of your heart in a dark velvet dress

You play my games with one eye half open.
A tease, a turn on, a flicker of smut
You hand me the cards wrapped up in your daydream
Forgetting the last time, I shuffle the pack.

I wear my crown with glamour and sparkle
I rise to your needs and get carried away
My heart is not lost, but lies here forgotten
One day I’ll use it to balance the stack

All Rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton, 2016

If you liked Goddess, read Losing it…

The Calling…

“Come to me,” her whisper beckons
“Come to me,” her lure is strong
“Come to me,” a velvet promise
“Come to me,” she turns me on

“Come with me,” through morning shadows
“Come with me,” the streets are long
“Come with me,” seduction follows
“Come with me,” she leads me on

“Come for me,” my thighs wide open
“Come for me,” her fingers wet
“Come for me,” my cunt grips harder
“Come for me,” I come.

All rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2015

If you liked this poem, read Catch

My Love is an Ocean of Guilt

My love is an ocean of guilt
Formed by the sweat that runs down her thighs.
The curve of her lip and the white of her teeth,
A smile that wriggles across the beach.

The incoming tide drowns my toes,
The skulls she painted with smiles and scorn
In red with silver, crystal eyes
She sparkles with the lies I’ve told!

Her love is an island of pain,
I tried to soothe with blissful breezes,
I tried a balm of clotted cream
The truth is out there, silver plated.

My love is an ocean of guilt,
I sail toy boats along its currents.
Her smile is worth a thousand cuts
From scattered shards of broken mirrors.

All rights Reserved – Alicia Fitton 2015

If you liked this, read Love?