Review ~ Ten Poems about Flowers from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
February 2020

My thanks to the publishers for my copy of this pamphlet

Instead of a Bunch

A bouquet is a welcome and beautiful thing, but the beauty is inevitably short-lived. This delightful mini-anthology, however, is guaranteed never to wither. Roses, fritillaries, daisies, gentians and the humble ragwort are celebrated here by poets ranging from Mimi Khalvati to William Wordsworth.

We experience their colours and scents in vivid language, so each lives on the page with all the intensity of a real flower. Sometimes it seems we can even learn from them; lilacs growing in an urban street know as much about love as we do:

“Lilac, like love, makes no distinction.

It will open for anyone.

Even before love knows that it is love

lilac knows it must blossom.”

from ‘City Lilacs’ by Helen Dunmore

This is one of the lovely mysteries of these poems – that a flower can somehow be like us and shed light on our own hopes and joys.

Poems by John Clare, Beth Davies, Helen Dunmore, John Heath-Stubbs, Seán Hewitt, Mimi Khalvati, DH Lawrence, Anne Ridler, Edward Thomas and William Wordsworth.

Cover illustration by Angie Lewin

What did I think about it..


If there's ever a time when the value of poetry comes into its own, then this is it. I personally gain such comfort from reading about the beauty of nature, especially flowers, and the lovely sentiments expressed in this latest mini-anthology have helped to lift my spirit during a particularly sad time in my life.

The poems cover a range of emotions and depending on your mood there is something both to comfort and charm, I especially enjoyed the late Helen Dunmore's poem, City Lilacs which highlights the beauty of lilac blossom in city life's ordinariness.

William Wordsworth's sweet poem To the Daisy reminds us of simple pleasures:

"Do thou, as thou art want, repair
My heart with gladness, and a share
Of thy meek nature!..."

It's also good to see D H Lawrence's Bavarian Gentians featured, he's such an underrated poet, I love how his words resonate with a rhythm entirely of their own making:

"Reach me a gentian, give me a torch!
let me guide myself with the blue, forked torch of this flower..."

The most significant poem for me, Overblown Roses by Mimi Khalvati, reminded me of my mother, who loved roses:

"She held one up, twirling it in her hand
as if to show how the world began
and ended in perfection..."

Ten poems about Flowers is a perfect collection of verse for any time of year, to celebrate a birthday, or an anniversary, or quite simply to comfort someone in this strange time in our world when everything seems especially gloomy just now.

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 Clouds, Walking, Birds, Home and Kindness. Candlestick Press pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries and garden centres nationwide and available to order online.

Connect: www.candlestickpress.co.uk /  Twitter @PoetryCandle

Sunday WW1 Remembered...

I enjoy reading books set during WW1 which cover as wide a range as possible. 


In July I will share five of my favourites, some non fiction and some fiction

Where Poppies Blow

John Lewis -Stempel

W&N

2016

WHERE POPPIES BLOW is the story of the British soldiers of the Great War and their relationship with the animals and plants around them. This relationship was of profound importance, because it goes a long way to explaining why they fought, and how they found the will to go on. And in that relationship is found some of the highest, noblest aspirations of humanity in times of war.

My thoughts...

It's not all about blood and bullets and this glorious book looks at the continuance and constancy of allowing, in the midst of carnage, the therapeutic benefits of nature. And, of how, even in the midst of horror, the birds still sang, the blossom bloomed as beautiful as ever, and the tiny creatures of nature still went about their daily business.

The joy of nature brought comfort and in some cases, healing, when I am sure it seemed like the entire world had been plunged into chaos. The author very cleverly divides the content of the book into manageable chapters, each with a  foot firmly placed in what was happening in the war, whilst at the same time allowing a glimpse into a very different world.

The book begins as it should, with a beautiful poem, August, 1914 by John Masefield, who juxtaposes the beauty of the English countryside against what was happening just a few hundred miles away in the trenches of the Western Front. And just as poetry can evoke such strong emotions, so can this recounted story of a group of soldiers, from the Royal Warwickshire, who tenderly buried a dead pigeon they found in a communication trench, or the deep and abiding comradeship between an officer and his horse, or of how medics treated both wounded soldiers and animals, even to making artificial wooden legs for dogs who were thus injured in battle.

One of my favourite chapters, entitled The Bloom of Life explains how soldiers cultivated small trench gardens and regularly sent home for seeds and how grassy mounds would be transformed with nasturtiums, daffodils and hyacinths, and how billets would bloom with tiger lilies, auriculas and roses. And of course, who can forget the image of the poppy fields of Flanders.

Poppy Field Detail
Photograph by kind permission
Digital Images

So many beautifully recounted stories make up the whole of this fascinating book which is a joy to read from start to finish.

About the Author

John Lewis-Stempel was born in Herefordshire and is an author and farmer, who writes on a range of subjects including military history and the natural world. His best-selling books include Meadowland: The Private Life of an English Field (2014), winner of the Thwaites Wainwright Prize for Natural Writing. He is a columnist for Country Life and in 2016 was shortlisted for Magazine Columnist of the Year.

~***~

Song of the Flower ~ Khalil Gibran

©picksipics

I am a kind word uttered and repeated 

By the voice of Nature; 

I am a star fallen from the 

Blue tent upon the green carpet. 

I am the daughter of the elements 

With whom Winter conceived; 

To whom Spring gave birth; I was 

Reared in the lap of Summer and I 

Slept in the bed of Autumn. 

At dawn I unite with the breeze 

To announce the coming of light; 

At eventide I join the birds 

In bidding the light farewell. 

©picksipics

The plains are decorated with 

My beautiful colors, and the air 

Is scented with my fragrance. 

As I embrace Slumber the eyes of 

Night watch over me, and as I 

Awaken I stare at the sun, which is 

The only eye of the day. 

I drink dew for wine, and hearken to 

The voices of the birds, and dance 

To the rhythmic swaying of the grass. 

I am the lover's gift; I am the wedding wreath; 

I am the memory of a moment of happiness; 

I am the last gift of the living to the dead; 

I am a part of joy and a part of sorrow. 

©picksipics

But I look up high to see only the light, 

And never look down to see my shadow. 

This is wisdom which man must learn