We were extremely saddened last week to learn that Meg Cox, one of our Smith|Doorstop poets, had died.
Meg came to poetry in her sixties, after finishing a degree with the Open University. Once she started, she was published widely in magazines, and attended many open mic nights. She lived in a small hamlet in North Herefordshire, with her dogs a beautiful view from the window, and would often say that between the poems and the friends they’d brought her, she had little to complain about.
Her pamphlet Looking over My Shoulder at Sodom was published by Grey Hen Press in 2014. This was followed by a full-length collection A Square of Sunlight, which we at The Poetry Business were very proud to publish in July 2021.
Meg’s poem ‘1963’, included in A Square of Sunlight, was chosen by Carol Rumens as a Guardian Poem of the Week in 2022, and Pat Edwards, reviewing the book for London Grip, praised Meg’s refreshing honesty and her gift for finding comedy inside heartbreak. Kim Moore called the poems “wonderfully irreverent, effortlessly wise and deliciously wicked,” perfectly summing up the range of Meg Cox’s poetry.
Meg’s very good friend and fellow poet, Lesley Ingram, shared these memories of her online last week:
It is with huge sadness that I have to share the news that Meg Cox has died, peacefully in Hereford hospital on Sunday evening.
Meg was a superb poet. Her collection ‘A Square of Sunlight’ (2021 The Poetry Business / smith|doorstop) is a wonderful collection full of wit and poignancy, and just so ‘her’: sentiment without sentimentality, straight talking, very moving. It is a fabulous legacy, of a life which brings to mind the freedom of the 60s, La Dolce Vita, a life lived fully then and since. A certain way of looking at things. Love and loss, no compromise, getting on with it. Funny.
And we have lost a very special person.
When we were studying with the OU in around 2007(ish) our Hereford/Worcester group had a small rebellion in the on-line forums, where only we seemed to be doing the feedback. There were lots of ‘lurkers’ and we were cross. So we set up our own forum, and gave ourselves nicknames inspired by the French Resistance, La Femme Fatale, L’Amouroux, La Fantome, Le Beret d’or. All with shortened nicknames (Femmy, L’ammy, Fanty, Berry…). She was Beauvy – La Beauvoiriste.
Go well Beauvy. You will be unforgettable.
Edit: P.S. I don’t know who the BOL was (buggered-off-lover) but if you’re reading this, then you’re in the book!
You can still hear Meg reading from A Square of Sunlight, alongside Thirza Clout, in a recording of our online launch event on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWqTsXHYEIg
Our thoughts are with Meg’s family and with the many friends she made through poetry over the years.