Live Encounters Poetry & Writing February 2026.
What it Does to You, poem by Lynda Tavakoli.
What it Does to You
The intrigue
the plain brown envelope
the name misspelt
the address sketchily penned
with malevolence
by some unknown hand
Interesting
The opening
the folded white A4
the photocopied sheet
no prints but mine then (clever)
the six lines of loathing
magnified in black ink
Really?
The follow up
the police the questions
the who why what when
of the perpetrator
the forensics
the underlying threat
For Fuck’s sake
The aftermath
the wondering
the knowing that life
has altered just like that
the boiling anger at the risk
you suddenly need to take
just to put your name at the bottom of a bloody poem
Lynda Tavakoli lives in County Down, Northern Ireland where she has facilitated adult creative writing classes for a number of years and worked as a tutor for the Seamus Heaney Award for schools. She is a professional member of The Irish Writers Centre and has been nominated for both the Best of the Net and The Pushcart Prize. A poet and novelist, Lynda’s work has been published worldwide with Farsi, Spanish and Arabic translations. She has won a number of international poetry and short story awards and been published in numerous journals and anthologies including Live Encounters Magazine, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, The Galway Review, Skylight47, Abridged, CAP Seamus Heaney Anthologies, Eat the Storms, Drawn to the Light Press, amongst many others. Lynda’s debut poetry collection, The Boiling Point for Jam received wide acclaim for its raw honesty and authenticity while her latest collection A Unison of Breaths has been published by Arlen House.