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| Candlestick Press 2024 My thanks to the publisher for my copy of these pamphlets |
A daughter will always be a daughter, and this beautiful and tender selection celebrates that joyful fact.
We begin with a birth and progress through the years via familiar landmarks; the beloved toys of early childhood and tricky teenage arguments lead to the inevitable moment when a daughter must leave home.
A poem about teaching a daughter to swim becomes a moving expression of a rite of passage into independence:
“You will watch her
leaving the shore behind
and the current will flow
the right way. That day,
the water will hold her…”
from ‘Teaching Your Daughter to Swim’ by Clare Shaw
Running through every poem there is an abiding sense of the power of the bond between a parent and daughter – and of course there is always love.
Poems by Michael Brown, SL Grange, Harry Guest, Joanna Ingham, James P Lenfestey, Kim Moore, Marilyn Nelson, Clare Shaw, Anne Stevenson and Claire Walker.
Cover illustration by Caroline Barker.
📖 My Review...
I'm blessed to have been a daughter and now have a daughter and a son of my own, both infinitely precious. These lovely poetry pamphlets celebrate the wonder and blessing of having a daughter and a son in our lives.
Having a daughter is one of life's blessings, I've loved having a daughter, from watching her grow from quiet babyhood, into to a confident adult, and now a mother herself , just continues the joy.
Beginning with birth, the poems help to celebrate a life shared, special moments which bring us all together. That precious moment when a woman become a mother is celebrated with this lovely poem:
From Poem for a Daughter by Anne Stevenson
" A woman's life is her own
until it is taken away
by a first particular cry.
then she is not alone
but part of the premises
of everything there is
a time, a tribe, a war
When we belong to the world
we become what we are..."
From A Daughter's First Term at University by Harry Guest
This one forcibly reminds me of leaving my daughter at her shared house in Leeds, having bundled everything she needed for her first term at university into the car. We crossed the Pennines from Lancashire into Yorkshire and back to the city of her birth. There was excitement but also sadness with an indescribable sense of loss.
"...The fact remains- the one whom you loved as an everyday presence has been
elected a citizen of a world you'll never inhabit
She's left, rightly so, to gain where others have given,
she's cut the cord, packed her bags, embarked on adulthood..."
The sharing of love and the deepening of the parental bond is celebrated in each of these ten lovely poems. I think Ten Poems about Daughters is rather special and is definitely one to treasure and pass on to my daughter so that she, in turn, can pass it on to her daughter.
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| Candlestick Press 2024 |
In this delightful mini anthology we find touching and uplifting poems exploring sons as babies and sons as young men, as well as everything in between.
We meet a boy daydreaming in bed on a summer’s evening, his mother delighting in his wakefulness as his imagination roams in the dark. There’s a son begging his dad for a bedtime story, which must be different from the last one.
And then there are unforgettable rites of passage such as a gap year, which turns out to be as much of an adventure for the parent as for the child:
“My heart soars like the birds in your bright blue skies.
My love glows like the sunrise over the lost city.
I sing along to Ella Fitzgerald, A tisket A tasket.
I have a son out in the big wide world.”
from ‘Gap Year’ by Jackie Kay
The poems are a reminder of the delights, joys and endless surprises of watching a son grow through childhood into whatever happens next.
Poems by Emily Blewitt, Josephine Corcoran, Glyn Edwards, Langston Hughes, Jackie Kay, Galway Kinnell, Li-Young Lee, David Morley, Sinéad Morrissey and Naomi Shihab Nye.
Cover illustration by Caroline Barker.
📖 My Review..
I'm blessed to have been a daughter and now have a daughter and a son of my own, both infinitely precious. These lovely poetry pamphlets celebrate the wonder and blessing of having a daughter and a son in our lives.
I've loved being the mother of a son, watching him grow from sturdy babyhood, to being a strong and protective father himself to a daughter. This anthology of ten intuitive poems about sons shares that unbreakable bond between parent and child.
"A man crosses the street in the rain
stepping gently, looking two times north and south:
because his son is asleep on his shoulder
no car must splash him,
No car drive too near his shadow.."
From Shoulders by Naomi Shihab Nye
Beautifully written, as always, and with much to consider I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this anthology of Ten Poems about Sons. From baby hood, to adulthood and stages in between this anthology celebrates the bond that parents have with their sons. The cheery cover with its young boy at a desk, with his atlas, reminds me of my son who would squirrel away every postcard that arrived from overseas until the atlas became a wishlist of foreign places to travel. Another pamphlet to treasure ..
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.
Twitter/X @poetrycandle
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