🎄Time for some lovely festive reads 🎄
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| Candlestick Press September 2023 My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet |
In this Almanac for 2024 you’ll find beautiful poems old and new, chosen to keep you company through the year.
We open with a poem that moves from mud and greyness to a vision of springtime-in-waiting, glimpsed in “a clutch of green spears”. Summer brings strawberries and swims by moonlight, while autumn is full of birds:
“Today I’m noticing wings – a swan
spreads its pinions wide, drinks
late, strange warmth from October skies.”
from ‘Callings’ by Sue Burge
The selection ends with a paean to winter sunshine, and an evening à deux beside an open fire. Poetry can find wonder in all seasons and all weathers, and this mini-anthology will bring delight from January to December.
Poems by Robert Browning, Sue Burge, Josephine Corcoran, Lucy Dixcart, Nicolette Golding, Lucy Ingrams, Stephen Keeler, DH Lawrence, Edna St Vincent Millay, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, Angela Readman and Edward Thomas.
Cover illustration by Angie Lewin.
🎄 My Review..
The older I get and the more I love to read an almanac. There is something quite special about starting a new year, looking forward and observing the changes of the seasons. This beautifully produced almanac includes poems which cover the twelve months of the year, each exploring changing times. As always, it is inspiring to see the work of lesser known poets alongside more recognised poems.
One of my favourite poets Edna St Vincent Millay is represented in She had Forgotten How the August Night
“..She had forgotten how the August night
Was level as a lake beneath the moon,
In which she swam a little, losing sight
Of shore…”
I have particularly enjoyed dipping into and out of this rather special collection, finding something to enjoy in each of the featured poems and observing how the twelve months of the year unfold in imaginative detail. From the dark of winter, to the promise of spring, and from the brightness of summer to the browning colour palette of autumn there is something for everyone to enjoy.
Another of my favourites is from There’s nothing like the sun by war poet, Edward Thomas
“..There’s nothing like the sun as the year dies
Kind as it can be, this world being made so,
To stones and men and beasts and birds and flies,
To all things that it touches…”
Almanac : Twelve Poems for 2024 celebrates the new year in style. It would be a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves good poetry or instead of a card to celebrate the start of another new year which is filled with hope and promise.
🍷Best read with...a celebratory glass of champagne
About the Publisher
Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing sumptuously produced poetry pamphlets that serve as a wonderful alternative to a greetings card, with matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.
X @poetrycandle
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