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| Candlestick Press November 2025 My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet |
In this revised edition of our popular mini-anthology, there are poems celebrating all kinds of mothers. There’s the mother who can’t help cooking for “ several hundred million diners” and the mother who tries to keep her children’s diet free of harmful additives. There’s also the mother with a special voice for reading bedtime stories and even a yodeling Mother Earth who tells tales and gossips.
In one poem, a mirror in the family home seems to contain the past, present and future:
“… the mother
who looks like me, who
smiles at herself in her
mother’s mirror, the friendly
mirror in her mother’s house.”
from ‘Mirror’ by Maura Dooley
What all the poems share is a sense of lasting love that flows through the years between mother and son or daughter, surviving the twists, turns and surprises of our lives.
Poems by Laurie Bolger, Maura Dooley, Jonathan Edward’s, Joanna Ingham, Jackie Kay, DH Lawrence, Carmina Masoliver, Roy McFarlane , Caleb Parkin and John Siddique
Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows
📖 My Review ..
From its colourful cover, to the lovely tributes to mothers everywhere, this mini-anthology is a compelling reminder of the precious moments we spend with our mothers and the impact their distinctive personalities have on our lives.
My mother made sloe gin and damson wine, she knitted jumpers and unraveled old ones to knit again, and during the war years she made dresses out of old curtains . This poem reminded me of her:
‘If the earth is my mother, she’s a composer of gin and free-poured song,
A knitter of waste-wool, a forager of material, a seamstress of the surplus.’
From If the earth is my mother by Caleb Parkin
My mother had special voices, her phone voice, her talking to the priest voice, her school governor voice, even reading bedtime stories voice, the idea of which was was all beautifully captured in this lovely poem:
From The Voice in which my Mother Read to me by Jonathan Edwards
‘Isn’t her good morning, good afternoon, good night voice,
Her karaoke as she dusts, make furniture polite voice,
Her saved for neighbours babies and cooing our dog’s name voice..’
Ten Poems about Mothers is a beautifully presented anthology, each of the poems are uniquely different and yet all celebrate the lasting love and abiding connection we have for our mothers. This lovely poetry pamphlet would make the perfect gift instead of a card, especially with Mothering Sunday not too far away in March.
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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