📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Blackbirds from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
April 2026

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of this pamphlet 

 

Blackbirds are one of our most beautiful songsters. There’s nothing quite as transporting as hearing one sing from a treetop or rooftop on a summer evening – they appear to have all the time in the world:

“But the blackbird still will sing,
Making the heart of the dark wood thrill
With the notes that come from his golden bill…”

from ‘The Blackbird’s Song’ by George Walter Thornbury

These poems celebrate the heart-stopping beauty of the song, together with the perky boldness of a bird that we so often see hopping across our parks and gardens. Perhaps it’s because we’re familiar with them that blackbirds seem to have something to say about our human lives.

This richly varied selection will delight anyone who loves blackbirds and the irresistible music of their song.

Selected and introduced by Di Slaney

Illustrations by Sam Cannon

Poems by Moniza Alvi, John Clare, GillianClarke, Miriam Darlington, Phyllis Drayton, Wendy Pratt, Angela Readman, R/S Thomas, George Walter Thornberry and Humber Wolfe.

📖 My Review..

We have lots of birds visiting our garden, not just because we feed them so well all year round but also because we offer them a safe space, free of predators now that we are no longer a two cat family! I think the blackbirds are amongst my favourite, with their beautiful melodic song soaring above the trees.

This lovely anthology of poems celebrates the beauty of the humble blackbird, who we frequently see flitting about our gardens, sharing their glorious song, heralding the dawn and then wishing us good night in the serenity of twilight gloaming.

The Blackbird by John Clare 

“ The blackbird is a Bonny bird

That singer h in the wood

His song is in the evening heard

When the red cow chews her cud

His song is heard in morning loud

Upon the bright white thorn 

While the Blythe milkmaid sings as proud 

And holds the world in scorn”

There is much to enjoy in this lovely selection of poems, from the beauty of its blackbird cover and end-papers to the imaginative verses. It would be a perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who has a special interest in blackbirds or quite simply for the pleasure of reading some beautiful poems about blackbirds and appreciating the natural world.

©️JDBarton
Digital Images

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Allotments from Candlestick Press

 

Candlestick Press
April 2026

Thanks to the publisher for the copy of this pamphlet 

Having an allotment isn’t the same as having a vegetable patch in the garden. There’s something about the sense of shared endeavour – the fair exchange of cups of tea and know-how – that means an allotment is not just a place but also a state of mind.

The selection features poems that revel in the good-natured competition that inevitably arises: who has grown the biggest onion and whose weeds are most to be frowned upon. There are also slugs and worms, aching backs and roughened hands – all seasoned by the heady tang of manure.

“She places each first early

on its smelly bed. Delicate as eggs they sit

until he spades the soil over. Buried treasure.”

from ‘Allotment’ by Vivienne Tregenza

Selected and introduced by Di Slaney

Cover illustration by Diana Croft

Poems by Marie-Louise Eyres, Marian Griffin, Ramona Herdman, Beag Horn, Vanessa Lampert, John Lancaster, Vivienne Tregenza, Zoe Walkington, Peter Wallis and Rob Walton.

📖 My Review..

Whilst on the M62 motorway yesterday I passed a well established group of allotments which have been in this spot, by the side of the carriageway, for several years and seem to have expanded over time. There is no doubt that the allotments flourish, all individual in size and shape, and all in various stages of growth, with quirky bits of make-do-and-mend bits of kit which keep away the birds. I think our fascination for growing stuff, harking back to the days when we, perhaps, had a little strip of land to call our own, on which to grow vegetables for the table, is what makes owning an allotment such a pleasurable pastime.

Summed up perfectly in :

By Definition by John Lancaster 

“ Rented plots of usually poor quality soil that takes backbreaking years to tame into producing half-decent crops of vegetables and fruit. Must have decrepit sheds and unsightly plastic coverings to control weeds and acres of netting to stop birds, woolly bear caterpillars and cabbage white butterflies enjoying blackcurrants and brassicas..”

The competition between gardeners, the quest to grow the biggest vegetables and the fierce challenges between growers is alluded to in this joyous poem:

A huge onion to you is someone else’s bang-average-to-small-onion by Zoe Walkington

“Not only was her onion of exceptional size,

the amuse-bouche she had made with it

had blown the vicar away. You didn’t have the heart

to say Give it a rest Val, it’s just an onion”

Beautifully presented, with colourful garden inspired end papers, Ten Poems about Allotments is the perfect gift instead of a card for any allotment-loving gardener, be they the proud owner of a patch of land or currently on a long waiting list to get one.

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ In Memoriam from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
First Published 2012

Revised May 2018
Revised March 2026

This revised third edition of our much-loved anthology contains poems of bereavement selected for their beauty and the sense of consolation that they offer. There are poems that question and mourn, alongside others that accept the inevitability of death and give thanks for a life well lived.

Poems old and new reflect on the transforming experience of losing someone we love. For those arranging a funeral or simply seeking the quiet company of words to help them through the long process of grieving, this varied and reflective selection is sure to offer comfort:


“I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.”

from ‘Everything is Going to Be All Right’ by Derek Mahon

Selected by Di Slaney and Katharine Towers

Poems by Robert Burns, Emily Dickinson, Sasha Dugdale, Lorna Goodison, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Hollis, Jackie Kay, Faith Lawrence, Derek Mahon, Sue Millard, Adrian Mitchell, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Penelope Shuttle, Edna St Vincent Millay, Mark Twain, Anna Wigley and Jeremy Young.

Cover illustration by Alexandra Buckle.

My Review..

Whilst it is often difficult to choose the right words to express sadness or to offer support to someone recently bereaved, this anthology of twenty beautifully selected poems covers a whole range of emotions and offers comfort and solace in a meaningful way. There are poems from familiar poets, whose work continues to resonate, which sit very comfortably alongside verses from more more modern poets , all of which capture the mood perfectly.

The poems remind us that those we love never leave us:

Death is Smaller than I Thought by Adrian Mitchell

" My Mother and Father died some time ago

I loved them very much.

When they died my love for them

Did not vanish or fade away

It stayed just about the same ,

Only a sadder colour

And  can feel their love for me,

Same as it ever was.."

These twenty sensitively chosen poems remind us what it is to be human and as we seek consolation in the beauty of words, we let the gentleness of the verses quietly wash over us. Beautifully presented, with a thoughtful cover and end-papers, In Memoriam would make the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who is experiencing loss. 

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Daffodils from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
February 2026

My thanks to the publisher for the copy of this pamphlet 

  

The most famous flowers in poetry must surely be William Wordsworth’s Daffodils , expressing the surprise and delight of stumbling upon unexpected beauty.

And being beautiful is something that daffodils just can’t help… In this mini anthology we encounter a whole host of varieties, from “dainty white dancers” to “saffron flouncers”. Over and again the poems celebrate the flower’s gloriously jaunty yellow-ness, which seems to spell hope at a time when spring has barely got going – sometimes even in mid-winter 

“They wait for me

holding out the sun like a gold watch

against the shortest day…”

from ‘Winter Daffodils’ by Phoebe Hesketh

The poems are guaranteed to gladden the heart, encouraging us to pay attention to the everyday splendour of this much-loved herald of spring.

Selected and introduced by Di Slaney

Poems by Jason Allen-Paisant, Moyà Cannon, Gillian Clarke, Isobel Dixon, UA Fanthorpe, Phoebe Hesketh, Clinton Scollard, Favid Scott, Dorothy Wordsworth and William Wordsworth.

Cover Illustration by Jane Burn

📖 My Review

My heart gladdens in late winter/early spring when the daffodils start to appear. It is my favourite flower and whilst the season is in full bloom, I fill my house with vases of them. This delightful collection of ten daffodil inspired poems brings with it a hint of promise and a glimpse into the magical world of this most beautiful of flowers.

©️Jaffareadstoo

No anthology about daffodils would be complete without the most famous of poems ‘Daffodils’ by William Wordsworth and yet it was also rather special to see his sister Dorothy featured in her lovely poem

I Never Saw Daffodils so Beautiful 

“ I never saw daffodils so beautiful

They grew among the mossy stones -

About and about them..”

There is so much to enjoy in the simple beauty of a vase of golden yellow daffodils and this delightful poem by Isobel Dixon captured the essence so beautifully:

March

“ is the month of

daffodils

in jam jars 

on windowsills

slim shafts 

of home-sap

greening

our sight lines”

This mini anthology of Ten Poems about Daffodils is the perfect choice as we come out of the dark days of winter and inch our way towards spring. It would be a perfect gift instead of a card to anyone who has a spring birthday or just for the simple pleasure of reading some beautiful poems about daffodils in all their golden glory.

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Birds from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
First published 2017
Revised November 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

Our smallest creatures seem to demand the most rapt attention. The poems in this revised edition of our much-loved title suggest that there’s something in the nature of a bird that makes it particularly suited to the small and intense space that is a poem.

The ten selections are little miracles in themselves, capturing the quirks of habit or appearance that distinguish one species from another. For Jean Atkin a chough is an embodiment of King Arthur, while for Katrina Porteous a skylark offers:

“…all the music the heart needs,

Full of its sudden fall, silent fields.”

from ‘Skylark’ by Katrina Porteous

The poems beautifully imagine the brief and joyful lives of birds, while teasing out what thrills and moves us when we encounter them. A poem, it transpires, can reveal just as much as a pair of binoculars.

Poems by Jean Atkin, Alison Brackenbury, John Clare, Emily Dickinson, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Rebecca Goss, Thomas Hardy, Caleb Parkin, Katrina Porteous and Lynne Wycherley.

Donation to The Owls Trust 

📖 My Review..

I’m extremely fortunate to have an interesting collection of birds visit our garden bird feeder. Nothing fancy, just chattering sparrows, chirpy robins, excitable starlings and mellifluous blackbirds, but they’re all a delightful addition to the garden and such fun to observe. This anthology of ten beautifully written poems about birds all capture the distinct personality of these tiny creatures. 

To hear their hopeful song as they herald spring is something special to treasure and captured beautifully in this lovely poem:

From “Hope” is a thing with feathers by Emily Dickinson 

“Hope” is a thing with feathers-

That perches in the soul

And sings a tune without the words-

And never stops -at-all..’

I will always remember the pure joy of observing a murmuration of starlings and feeling the beat of thousands of tiny wings or of regularly seeing those long  ‘V’ formations of birds as they fly overhead in spring and autumn :

I sense an agitation in the sky,

long Vs trailing like pennants

Altocirrus, swans white

As the tundra they come from

From Berwick Swans at Ouse Washes by Lynne Wycherley

Originally published in 2017 this anthology of Ten Poems about Birds has been reissued with a striking new cover. Each of the poems are a delightful addition and bring something special to treasure. It would be a delightful gift instead of a card for any ornithologist or simply a reminder that we should all enjoy the special kind of magic that birds bring into our lives.

 

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Fathers from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
November 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this poetry pamphlet 

Dads, fathers, papas, daddies: the poems in this updated edition of our best-selling mini-anthology explore fatherhood from a host of angles. We encounter a father who likes running up hills, a father who plays the accordion and – poignantly – a father who needs to be taught how to hug.

The poems celebrate the fact that fathers can be both protectors and purveyors of imaginative childhood adventures:

“My father was a bear.

He carried me through forest, sky

and over frozen sea. At night

I lay along his back

wrapped in fur and heat

and while I slept, he ran…”

from ‘You May Have Heard of Me’ by Shazea Quraishi

There are also poems of tender remembrance. Everyday happenings become special with hindsight, acting as a reminder that a father’s love is something we can carry with us forever.

Poems by Melba Joyce Boyce, Lewis Buxton, WD Ehrhart, Wilfred Gibson, Edgar Albert Guest, Tyehimba Jess, Joanne Limburg, Roy McFarlane, Shazea Quraishi, Siriol Troup

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows

📖 Mt Review..

This poignant mini-anthology of ten poems explore fatherhood in all its many guises, discovering the subtle nuances of nurturing a protective role whilst at the same time allowing a glimpse into the man.  I’ve enjoyed discovering new verses, each of them bring something unique, and express very personal memories which resonated with me in an emotional way. 

After my father passed away I recall going into my family home and imagining him still there in every nook and cranny.

‘Dad, 

I come home 

and find you sitting

in every room in the house,

it’s smell your smell

as if it were a jacket

you’d only just thrown off,

Still warm.

From The Return by Joanne Limburg

I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this mini anthology, some of the verses made me smile, whilst others brought a tender feeling of loss which reminded me powerfully of my own father who gave so much of himself in order to give his family everything. This would make the perfect gift instead of a card for fathers everywhere, especially on Fathers Day in June, or to anyone who has lost a father recently, or even a new father to remind them all quite simply how precious they are in our lives.

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

🎅🏻 Festive Read ~ Christmas Tree : Ten Poems of Wishes and Lights from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
September 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

Many of us still love the tradition of decorating a Christmas tree to bring the light indoors during the darkest days of winter.

This festive mini-anthology captures their special magic, so symbolic of family and spending time with loved ones. There are poems about choosing the right tree and carrying it home, being a tree in a forest in all the wonder of winter, even finding a small owl hiding in a tree’s branches over the holidays. There’s also a poem about a magnificent tree made entirely of books that tickles the ceiling.

Central to everything is the tree itself:

“…Inside, the tree
claims its space, cloaked in glitter,
wearing winter’s hush like a crown.”

from ‘Gown of Needles’ by Gail Lawler

These beautifully varied poems explore the importance of Christmas trees, alight with all our memories, sparkles and wishes.

Poems by Jeanette Burton, ee cummings, Olga Dermott-Bond, Robert Frost, Gail Lawlor, SinéadMorrissey, CP Neild, Rhonda Stephen’s, Molly Thapviwat and Polly Walshe.

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows.

🎅🏻 My Review..

I’ve had the same artificial Christmas tree for well over thirty years because having had adventurous cats it seemed safer not to give them the option of scrabbling through pine needles and overturning a real tree. So every year our faithful old tree comes out of its box in the loft and gets adorned with our favourite decorations. Delicate glass ornaments I bought from a local glass designer, magical figures chosen by my children when they were small, the remaining two baubles I purchased as a young bride for my first Christmas in my new home and now festive memories my grandchildren bring to the tree. All have special meaning and that is exactly what this lovely anthology shares with us, all those evocative memories which help to bring the light of Christmas into our hearts.

I especially loved this one as I attempted a book tree one year (see below)

“ We build our Christmas tree each year

pulling down books

from every shelf,

piling them up and up

on the living room floor “

From Our Book Tree (i) by CP Neild

My Book Tree
©Jaffareadstoo
2014

I look in awe at sumptuously decorated trees with everything perfectly matching with a specific colour scheme but if I’m really honest I prefer a hotch-potch Christmas tree which is decorated with lovely memories of the past, reflections of what has been, hope for the future.

This idea is beautifully shared in this lovely poem:

“ Every year we carry it up

from the basement-

a ritual of dust and remembering.

And every year

it stands again,

quietly holding

what we no longer can.”

From Inheritance by Molly Thapviwat

Beautifully presented with a colourful cover, Christmas Tree : Ten Poems of Wishes and Lights is a wonderfully evocative anthology of poems which touch the heart in a special way and with just a month to go before Christmas if you are looking for something special instead of a card then this anthology is a perfect gift for anyone who loves Christmas and especially Christmas trees 🌲 

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Chocolate from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
August 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

Everyday treat, indulgent luxury or an addiction we can’t or won’t break – many of us have a passionate relationship with chocolate, making it perfect subject matter for poetry.

This luscious mini-anthology celebrates preferences for milk or plain, pralines or fondants, rich truffles or the sweetest hot chocolate drinks. Anyone who has ever craved chocolate will identify with poems that explore its sensuous aspects – taste, texture, mouthfeel – in an intensity akin to love.

And if chocolate is like love, then these poems explore the depth and shape of that love:

“Knotted smoke, dark punch
of earth and night and leaf,
for a taste of you

any woman would gladly
crumble to ruin.”

from ‘Chocolate’ by Rita Dove

These entertaining, unexpected and moving poems also explore the history of chocolate, and the price paid by those whose hard work brings it to our lips.

Poems by Clare Best, Alison Bracjenberry, Barbara Crooker, Rita Dove, Roy Marshall, Ife Olatona, Pauline Prior-Pitt, Louis Simpson, Oenone Thomas and Noel Williams.

Donation to Fairtrade Foundation 

📖 My Review..

I adore chocolate in all shapes and forms from smooth and silky, to bitter and crunchy, there is something about the taste of chocolate that just makes the world seem a calmer place. This fine anthology of ten chocolate inspired poems will have your tastebuds tingling.

‘Oh, chocolate! From the spice bazaars 

Of Africa, hulled in mills, beaten, 

pressed in bars. The cold slab of a cave’s

interior, when all the stars have gone to sleep’

From Ode to Chocolate by Barbara Crooker

I once knew someone who had worked, as a teenager, in the chocolate factory at Bourneville and even years later the smell and taste of chocolate made her feel really sick.

‘ When you start in a chocolate factory,

the teacher said (why did she glance at me ?)

they say, “Eat all you want” . After a week

They know the  slightest taste will make you sick.

This may have been a story adults tell,

All confidence, no proof. Like laws. Like Hell.’

From  Bournville Babies by Alison Brackenberry

There’s something for everyone in this collection and more than enough to satisfy any chocolate cravings with poems which express the sensual nature of chocolate, the comforting taste of it when we need a pick me up and the endless selection of confectionery which is available to us 24 hours a day. So, whatever your fancy, be it the simple sweetness of milk chocolate, the decadence of rich heavy duty noir, or the lure of a box of hand decorated delights, Ten Poems about Chocolate will satisfy your chocolate cravings and is the perfect gift instead of a card to the chocolate lovers in your life and even better if accompanied by a selection of their favourite chocolatey treats 🍫

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 

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website

📖 Publication Day Book Review ~ The Emergency Poet by Deborah Alma

Michael O’Mara
25 September 2025

My thanks to the publisher fir my copy of this book to review

A ten-year anniversary edition of Deborah Alma’s

much-loved collection, The Emergency Poet:

An Anti-Stress Poetry Anthology

In The Emergency Poet, Deborah Alma (the Emergency Poet herself) has distilled all her warmth and wisdom into a seriesof ‘verse cures’. Here she presents a thoughtful and highly therapeutic selection of poems, both familiar and lesserknown, from the likes of Emily Dickinson, Dylan Thomas, E. E Cummings, Seamus Heaney, Elaine Feinstein, DerekWalcott, and Fleur Adcock.

From ‘Days when the world is too much with us’ to ‘Tonics to the lift the spirits’, they are soothing and carefully chosen topurge melancholy, provide hope and give courage in the most trying circumstances. Sections follow a life through itschallenges – from learning to be yourself, falling in and out oflove and having children, through to ill-health, coping with grief and death.

📖My Review..

I love a poetry anthology and this ten year anniversary edition of The Emergency Poet ticks all the right boxes as there is really something for all occasions. At stressful times in my life I have turned to poetry in order to make sense of a world gone mad, it is especially comforting to relax and let the beauty of words drift around you. 

Beautifully presented, The Emergency Poet is a wonderfully tactile little book which is just the right size to fit comfortably into a pocket or a handbag, or which sits patiently on a bedside table. It is a comforting sort of book to have just within reach when an emergency pick-me-up is required. Described as an ‘Anti-Stress Poetry Anthology’ I have certainly found that to be an accurate description. 

Perfectly divided into ten quite separate sections,  I was particularly thrilled to discover one of my favourite poems The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry opens the ‘For days when the world is too much with us’ section, and if you are not familiar with this lovely poem, I do recommend you search it out or even better treat yourself to this lovely anthology and discover more hidden gems and valued treasures.

I have found much to enjoy in this anthology recognising some old friends amongst the choices whilst discovering poems, and poets, I haven’t come across before. It would make a perfect gift for anyone who loves poetry, or for someone who is going through a challenging time or even as a little gift to oneself in order to help on those darker days when an emergency poem is just what is needed to keep the dark clouds at bay.

About the Author

Deborah Alma is the Emergency Poet and a bookseller. Since publication of her first book, The Emergency Poet ten years ago, her profile has grown enormously. She has worked using poetry with people with dementia, in hospice care, with women’s groups and with children in schools and taught at both Worcester and Keele universities. From 2012 she was the Emergency Poet, offering poetry on prescription from her vintage ambulance. She co-founded the world’s first walk-in Poetry Pharmacy in Bishop’s Castle, Shropshire in 2019, which now has a second branch inside Lush Spa on Oxford Street in

London.

She is the editor of several anthologies, notably These Are the Hands: Poems from the Heart of the NHS, the National Trust’s Nature Poems, and the new Poetry Pharmacy series with Macmillan. Her first full collection of poems, Dirty Laundry, is published by Nine Arches Press.

X @emergencypoet

Instagram @poetry_pharmacy_

BlueSky @omarabooks.bsky.social

Instagram @omarabooks

📖 Ten Poems from Somerset from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
August 2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

 

The old name for Somerset is Summerlands – a word that seems to contain the pastoral and slightly nostalgic atmosphere of this lovely area of Britain. These poems celebrate the intimacy of hidden valleys and tumbling rivers, and there’s a woodland walk which makes Samuel Taylor Coleridge long for the company of his beloved Sara.

The county is also a place of glorious towns and cities; Bath appears with its “gold-toned islands” and there’s also:

“The little old Somerset town you talk of,
that honey-gold, ever-sunlit,
late 1940s spot nestling in the green
scarplands of your memory…”

from ‘Roots’ by Robert Walton

What emerges here is the very particular character of Somerset – reflected in its treasury of local words, as well as in its deeper history when parts of the county lay under the sea.

 Carrie Etter is an American poet who has lived in the West Country since 2005.

Poems by David Briggs, Rachael Clyne, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Carries Etter, Gerald Grffin, Alyson Hallet, Pey Oh, Ruth Sharman, Robert Walton and Claire Williamson.

📖 My Review..

I’ve visited Somerset several times and on each visit I’ve been aware of the sense of history which surrounds the landscape and of forces, sometimes, ancient, which still linger in the highways and byways of this rather special county. This fascinating anthology explores the hidden places, bringing the county and its people alive in the imagination.

“ In narrow, Georgian alleys, still

you can meet

pale-gowned,-painted ladies,

who come down from

the grand sweeps of crescents”

From  The Tall Terraces of Bath by Pey Oh

Somerset’s rural landscape is beautifully described :

“ A country road ribboning the foothill

of a limestone escarpment- to the south.

low-slung December sun silhouetting 

hedgerows of willow and dogwood”

From Landscape with a Knackered Barn by David Briggs

I didn’t know that the old name for Somerset was Summerlands but that makes sense as there is something intrinsically special about its people, its landscape and its dialect. Beautifully put together, with a delightful cover so reminiscent of Bath, each of the ten poems are reflective of time and place and are the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who loves the area or for all those people who call this delightful county home.

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

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website 

Summer Reading ~ Ten Poems from the Peak District from Candlestick Press

 

Candlestick Press 
July 2025

Myhthanks to the publisher for my copy of this poetry pamphlet 

This mini anthology belongs to Candlestick’s popular series of UK regional titles, and features poems that capture the vivid landscapes and atmospheres of the Dark and White Peaks.

There’s a celebration of the very particular Derbyshire tradition of well dressing, alongside poems that take us up onto the high moors and down into the tunnels under Ladybower Reservoir.

At an iconic Dark Peak landmark, we encounter a raw landscape that tricks the mind into altered perceptions:

“It is endless, a stranded reef
which seeps and surges indefinitely.
Paths slip under streams; pools hover;
stones become sheep become stones.”

from ‘Kinder Downfall, 24 April 1932’ by Rob Hindle

The selection is proof (if needed) that the Peak District is equal to the Lake District in its power to fire the imaginations of poets who live in it – or who simply love it for its wild beauty.

Katharine Towers is a poet who lives in the White Peak.

Poems by Rob Hindle, Helen Mort, Alistair Noon, Mark Pajak, Peter Riley, Anna Seward, Katharine Towers, Tony Williams, River Wolton and Warda Yassin.

Cover illustration by Ian Parkinson 

 My Review..

The Peak District covers some 550 square miles and as the crow flies is about 36 miles from my house and yet it is a place I have visited infrequently but after reading this lovely anthology of poems I feel it is something I should rectify before too long. 

There are verses for all tastes in this group of ten poems, all of which conjure the many moods of this National Park and the importance of our connection to these wild spaces. 

 

Eid at Ladybower by Warda Yassin

We’d traverse along the Ladybower wall, me saying

it’s a giant Y-shaped bath. Abo laughing and teaching me about 

the plug holes at the bottom, and how water is carried…”

The simple pleasure of searching for wild flora in:

Looking for leek-coloured hawkweed at Moss Rake by Katharine Towers

“ Before long we were in our hands and knees in the white grit,

Poking our fingers into clumps of wild thyme and eyebright

And sandwort (or leadwort ) which may have been a form of saxifrage,

Although none of these were what we had come to find..”

I have really enjoyed exploring the Peak District in the company of these ten fine poets. Each bring something special and have captured the beauty of the place in such a way that I have now a yearning to see some of the places for myself. With it’s evocative cover and fascinating end papers Ten Poems from the Peak District is a perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who calls this beautiful place home or for those who love open spaces, big skies and hidden crags.

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

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website 

📖 Book Review ~ Almanac :Twelve Poems for 2025 from Candlestick Press

Candlestick press
 September 2024

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of the pamphlet

We begin on Exmoor and end with a frosted window in this glorious addition to our ever-popular series of Almanacs. On the way, we encounter wild roses and pipistrelle bats, the green-god Lud and “violet lightnings” during a summer storm.

The twelve poems take us through the year, noticing the particular things that make each month unique and precious. Spring is heralded in a delicious poem that relishes the rhymes and sound-patterns of the year’s most vibrant season:

“Slithery, withery Winter’s away!

Here comes dawny, yawny Spring sunrays,

rooty, shooty, tooty daffodils bright,

buttery, fluttery, butterflies light…”

from ‘Here Comes Spring’ by Linda Middleton

What could be better than starting each month with a poem? We hope this beguiling selection will help you to do just that.

Poems by David Clarke, Jane Clarke, Olga Dermott-Bond, Fiona Dignan, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Marie-Louise Eyres, Kerry Hardie, Mark Haworth-Booth, George Meredith, Linda Middleton, Angela Readman and Sara Teasdale.

Cover illustration by Laura Boswell.

📖 My Review…

I always get excited by an Almanac and Candlestick Press have just published their fourth Almanac which is available now for the coming year and is perfect as the nights begin to draw in and we go forward into winter. It makes for a cosy read, tucked up by the fire, with a cup of hot chocolate.

We start the year in January with a walk on Exmoor, a place I’ve never visited but Mark Haworth-Booth brings the place alive in his poem A January walk on Exmoor.

Flipping ahead to my birth month I find 10:58am in November, a poem by Angela Readman

Morning peers over their shifting boulder to say

See, isn’t this worth giving praise? Getting dressed?’

Each month is represented in a poem which reflects something about our observation of the natural world which serves to remind us of our close connection to nature. With its colourful cover, Almanac 2025 is a perfect read as the old year slips away or as a celebration of the new year ahead. 

It’s a lovely keepsake and something to dip into at the start of each new month, and is a perfect Christmas or New Year gift instead of a card for someone who enjoys beautifully written poetry, or if, like me, they love an Almanac.

 

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

Blue Sky @candlestickpress.bsky.social

Website