📖 Book Review ~Wish You Were Here : Fourteen Poems about Holidays from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
Summer  2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

The moment of pulling a suitcase or rucksack down from a cupboard or out from under the bed always carries a particular kind of excitement. It’s as if going away promises a new life – even though it’s only for a week or two. What counts is the thrill of departure, whether by car, train or plane:

“I love the hour before takeoff,
that stretch of no time, no home
but the gray vinyl seats linked like
unfolding paper dolls.”

from ‘Vacation’ by Rita Dove

These poems celebrate all sorts of holiday – from a motel in Florida which holds a lifetime of childhood memories to a first experience of Greece at eighteen, complete with sunburn, flip-flops and retsina. We meet dolphins and feral cats, a tea house high in the mountains and an estuary walk with daughters in Wales.

The selection, which incorporates winners in our recent competition, brims with nostalgia and affectionate humour – and then there’s the simple bliss of a pink sunset on a beach.

Poems by Wendell Berry, Richard Blanco, Carole Bromley, Jeanette Burton, Rita Dove, LB Jørgensen, Beth McDonough, Claire Lynn, Stephen Payne, Pete Taylor, Steve Waling, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Polly Walshe and Sarah Ziman.

My Review..

In the days before everyone had a telephone the first thing we did on holiday was to send a postcard to let those at home know that we had arrived safely. Invariably, one of the stock phrases written on the postcard was always 'wish you were here'.

Although our weather seems to have forgotten it's summer, now, at the start of July, is the time we think about going away on holiday and this collection gives us fourteen poems which each express the magic and excitement of being on holiday. 

From the excitement of seeing the sea :

' You sing the song that lays claim to the sight

I can see the sea, the sea the sea...

The Moment by Clair Lynn

And the otherness of being a different country :

'I know nothing about the Parthenon except

it's somewhere to sit down and the view's great

and round our feet stray cats yowl and beg

and we want to put them in our pockets

and smuggle them back to our hotel room..'

Postcards from Athens by Carole Bromley

And a wet Bank holiday, we've all experienced those:

' I was in the wrong skin, under canvas

on a wet Bank Holiday, so I trailed 

behind the family as we walked from Heysham and back..'

What I did on my holidays by Steve Waling

Each of fourteen poems are great, individually very different but collectively they celebrate all sorts of holidays, from Florida to Morecambe, there is something to enjoy in each of them, and even if we are not holidaying over summer we can remember these words from:

Holiday by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow:

The holiest of holidays are those

Kept by ourselves in silence and apart;

The secret anniversaries of the heart..'

Wish You Were Here is the best sort of accompaniment to any holiday. It is a lovely summery gift 'instead of a card' and a perfect size to read on a plane, train or automobile and wherever you are travelling to, or from, safe travels.

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.

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