📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems for Wellbeing from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
March 2025

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

 

There’s an expression: to be comfortable in your own skin. The words contain the idea that it’s possible to be at ease with yourself and your life – and that there’s fulfilment to be found in feeling this way.

These thoughtful poems offer moments of pleasure in uncomplicated things – flowers in a window box or eating toast at midnight – and remind us that we don’t always need to look very far to experience a sense of calm and wellbeing. The world can be a place that we know and trust:

“There’s a dream I have in which I
love the world. I run from end to end like fingers
through her hair. There are no borders, only wind.”

from ‘Meditations in an Emergency’ by Cameron Awkward-Rich

This is a selection to enjoy when we want to be reminded that if we look carefully, we have all we need to experience a sense of serenity and peace.

Edited by Vanessa Lampert who likes to walk on a windy hill and hasn’t grown out of building dams on beaches.

Poems by Laurie Bolger, Em Grey,Paula Jennings,Vanessa Lampert, Alden Nowlan,Cameron Awkward-Rich, Sara Teasdale, Jerrold Yam,Luke Samuel Yates and Dean Young.

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows.

📖My Review..

In our hectic world we all need a little help now and then, and this insightful collection of ten poems certainly helps to bring a sense of perspective. I find that reading poetry is especially therapeutic and is essential to my wellbeing which is why I have found this collection particularly special. Each of the poems are beautifully written, quietly introspective, with a real sense of quiet reflection.

I’m always delighted to see the work of Sara Teasdale and in Wood Song we are reminded of the comfort of nature:

“ I heard a wood-thrush in the dusk
Twirl three notes and make a star -
My heart that walked with bitterness
Came back from very far..”

The other poets. all equally talented, share the gift of their imagination in poems which resonate and capture a particular moment in time as in this lovely poem by Vanessa Lampert:

“ Tonight, it’s as if the rain was told
to wash away all
but the unwrapped gold of evening..’

Ten Poems for Wellness is beautifully designed, to a high quality, with a beautiful cover illustration which highlights the general empathic feel of the collection. It would be a beautiful momento, or a special gift,instead of a card for anyone who needs a bit of TLC.

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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