📖 National Poetry Day ~ A Poem for Every Night of the Year : Edited by Allie Esiri

MacMillan Children’s Books
1 October 2026

On National Poetry Day 2026, with its theme of ‘Wonder’ I’m delighted to feature this 10th Anniversary Edition of A Poem for Every Night of the Year. 2026 marks the 10th anniversary of the publication of A Poem For Every Night of the Year - Allie Esiri’s bestselling poetry anthology that has dominated the poetry charts for over a decade selling over 175,000 copies in 10 years and reigniting a passion for poetry in the UK. 

Allie has now written ten poetry anthologies which collectively have sold over half a million copies, are regularly chosen for National Poetry Day and have been picked as best books of the year in the Observer, New Statesman and The Times. Credited with bringing poetry into the digital age, Allie's poetry app The Love Book features readings by Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Hiddleston, Damian Lewis, Helen McCrory, Gina Bellman and Emma Watson.

A Poem For Every Night of the Year is a magnificent collection of 366 poems compiled by Allie Esiri, one to share for every night of the year with a special new cover for the 10th year anniversary. 

The poems – together with introductory paragraphs – have a link to the date on which they appear. Shakespeare celebrates midsummer night, Maya Angelou for International Women’s Day and Lewis Carroll on April Fool’s day.

Perfect for reading aloud and sharing with all the family, it contains a full spectrum of poetry from familiar favourites to exciting contemporary voices. The special 10th anniversary edition A Poem for Every Night of the Year features the poetry of Rumi, Maya Angelou, Benjamin Zephaniah, George The Poet, Mandy Coe, John Updike, Seamus Heaney, Ted Hughes, John Cooper Clark, Paul McCartney, Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy, Ezra Pound, Philip Larkin, Robert Frost, AA Milne, William Wordsworth, Christina Rossetti, Lewis Carroll, W. H. Auden, Keats, Yates, Byron, Shelley, Roald Dahl, Rudyard Kipling, William Shakespeare, Emily Brontë, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Emily Dickenson, Tennyson, Amelia Earhart, Walt Witman, Margaret Atwood, Matsuo Basho, Walter de la Mare, DH Lawrence, Dylan Thomas, Simon Armitage, JK Rowling, Laurie Lee, Thomas Hardy and many more. 

This soul-enhancing book is the perfect gift that will last the whole year, with a little bit of magic to read every evening.

For January there is To a Snowdrop by William Wordsworth and Caged Bird by Maya Angelou

For Valentines Day there is How Do I Love Thee? By Elizabeth Barrett Browning

For Pancake Day there is Mix a Pancake by Christina Rossetti

For Spring there is ‘Hope’ is the Thing with Feathers by Emily Dickinson and The Lady of Shalott by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

For Easter there is A Donkey by Ted Hughes and The Knight’s Tomb by Samuel Taylor Coleridge

For April Fools Day there is the Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

For June there are children’s classics The Way Through the Woods by Rudyard Kipling and The Night Mail by W. H. Auden

For Summer Solstice there is A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare

For Autumn there is Fall, Leaves, Fall by Emily Brontë

For Remembrance Day there is The Soldier by Rupert Brooke

For Christmas there is A Visit from St Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore, Christmas by John Betjemin, and Talking Turkeys by Benjamin Zephaniah.

About Allie Esiri

Allie Esiri’s best-selling poetry anthologies include Shakespeare For Every Day Of The Year, A Poem For Every Day Of The Year and 365 Poems For Life. They have lit an explosion of interest in poetry in the UK, are regularly chosen for National Poetry Day and have been picked as best books of the year by The Observer, The Times and New Statesman. Yearly sell out performances at the National Theatre and major book festivals with some of our best-loved actors reading poetry – from Helena Bonham Carter to Dominic West – are capturing and enthralling a new generation of poetry lovers. 

Esiri read Modern and Medieval Languages at the University of Cambridge then worked as an actress for ten years in the English Shakespeare Company and on TV in shows such as Sharpe, Men Behaving Badly and Poirot, before moving on to create the first poetry apps, daily poetry anthologies (for all ages) and live shows.

Website

X @AllieEsiri

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Beer from Candlestick Press 🍺

Candlestick Press
September 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

 

There’s something companionable about the question “Do you fancy a pint?” It sounds somehow homely – an invitation to share time and exchange news as much as to have a drink.

In these entertaining and warm-hearted poems, we encounter all kinds of beer – everything from real ale to Mexican Pacifico and from home brew to Guinness. We watch as pints are poured and experience the delivery of the week’s supply of barrels, each rolled down into the cellar in what becomes a skilful dance.

In one poem a village pub on a country lane casts an unexpected spell as soon as the travellers cross the threshold:

“… to pass out of the dark

and into a room of flickered malty brown

like the glint of a full pint glass.”

from ‘The Swan’ by Sally Goldsmith

These are poems to be enjoyed in the company of a quiet pint, or as a reminder of the simple pleasure of entering a favourite pub.

Poems by Sally Goldsmith, AE Houseman, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Grevel Lindop, Tom Marioni, John McCullough, Kathy Pimlott, Edgar Allan Poe, Martha Sprackland, and Marjorie Sweetko.

🍺 My Review

There’s something comforting about the smell of beer, for me it conjures up experimenting with home brew or sampling the delights of a malty bitter in the garden of a country pub and even though beer is no longer my drink of choice, I do still appreciate its pungent aroma which is so much part of our heritage. We are a nation that has brewed beer for hundreds of years, from tiny malt houses, to the brewing giants, beer production is part of our landscape.

The feeling a of a well earned stop on a Friday night…

“A Friday feeling ,half way home,

Rain’s drummed you off the motorway, 

good news from London aches for telling..”

From the Regulars by Marjorie Sweetko

To the poignant in..

“ In the front room, whether indigo skies

or rainy grey covered the afternoons

Grandad hammered bottle caps onto homemade brew,

welding metal caps onto brown glass bottles 

As he listened to Beethoven’s symphonies..”

From Grandad’s Home Brew by Khadijah Ibrahiim 

This reminded me of waiting expectantly for a pint of Guinness to be poured in a bar in Dún Laoghaire..

He never tired of explaining from his stool

the route to an immaculate Guinness.

Tilt your glass at forty-five degrees

to kill the splash. Hold it close

to the spout, avoiding contact. Take the brew

three-quarters up, then leave to settle..”

From Masterclass by John McCullough

Like a well-poured pint of beer I found much to enjoy in sampling the ten very different poems on offer in this collection. From its evocative cover, with its hops and barley and the glistening amber of the pint pot of ale, Ten Poems about Beer will make a lovely gift instead of a card for anyone who enjoys a quiet drink in a country pub or a noisy night down the local. There is something different to be found and each of the poems celebrate our companionable connection to beer - drinking safely, and responsibly, of course.

Cheers 🍺

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 Bluebells from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
May 2026

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet 

One of the most beloved of British wildflowers, bluebells are a brief glory in our ancient woodlands. They appear in April or May and dazzle us for a short while with their scent and colour, making us think of other blue places such as the sea and the sky. No wonder they are also beloved of poets.

The ten poems gathered here offer heady encounters with bluebells in woods, on hillsides and under hedges. They reflect the fact that even if we go looking for them, bluebells always manage to astonish us:

“there! – a flood of sky in the under-wood,

thousands of cloudless blues on strings.

Wait for a wind to play them. Wait for them to ring –”

from ‘Bluebells’ by Cheryl Pearson

This is an anthology to read when the bluebells are in full bloom – and to return to later in the year when we long to be reminded of the intoxicating beauty of those glorious days of spring.

Selected and introduced by Katharine Towers

Poems by John Clare, Stanley Cook, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Helen Dumore, Sylvia Kantaris, Patrick Kavanagh, Cheryl Pearson, Anne Stevenson, Charles Tomlinson and Katharine Towers.

Cover illustration by Jane Burn.

📖My Review

From its exceptionally pretty cover, to the beauty of the ten poems about bluebells, this anthology is the perfect antidote to the gloom of winter as nothing suggests spring more beautifully than a carpet of delicate bluebells. I’m fortunate to have an ancient woodland nearby where bluebells have been undisturbed for many years, they carpet the woodland floor with a delightful delicacy, hushed and unhurried, stunning in their simplicity.

“No one can count the bluebells

That gather together

Until they fill 

The woods with waves of colour..”

from Bluebells by Stanley Cook

As a child, I remember gathering armfuls of bluebells and taking them home for my mother to put into vases, the air delicately scented with the crisp, sharp smell of flower filled afternoons in the spring sunshine.

“In every wood hedgegap they’re shining through

Smelling of spring and beautifully blue 

- Childhood & Spring now beautifully dwells

Their memories in the woods we now walk through..”

From Bluebells how beautifull and bright they look by John Clare

This is a delightful anthology of ten really lovely poems which celebrate the special beauty of our native bluebells. Welcoming the spring months of April and May, bluebells shimmer and dance in early morning light or weave and glow in the crisp spring sunshine. This beautiful collection is the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who loves the start of early spring, maybe celebrating a birthday or an anniversary or quite simply as a gift to one’s self as a reminder that beauty exists in the natural world, it’s there, to be found, in quiet places. A special shout out to the talented illustrator who has captured the beauty of the bluebell with a delightful cover and colourful end papers.

©️Jaffareadstoo 

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

📖 BookReview ~ Ten Poems about Owls from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
February 2026

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

Owls are birds that fascinate us, seeming to exist at the shadowy margins of our human lives. More often heard than seen, their nocturnal cries can be both haunting and exhilarating.

These ten poems celebrate the elusiveness of owls, as well as the thrill of a rare sighting; when a little owl is spotted on the branch of an olive tree in Greece, it looks more like a “small clay jar” than a bird. In another poem, the near-silent flight of a barn owl offers a moment of spellbound intimacy:

“If breath was any animal, it’s this.
Glide and hush-sweep
across the close-by fields of grain.”

from ‘Barn Owl on Newburgh Road’ by Niall Campbell

The poems remind us that an encounter with any wild creature is a gift – and that meeting an owl in a poem can be every bit as magical as meeting one in the woods.

Selected and introduced by Niki Bowers

Poems by Nial Campbell, Daniel Webster Davis, Emily Dickinson, Victoria Gatehouse, Ian Humphreys, Gregory Leadbetter, Rob Miles, Angela Readman, AE Stallings and Edward Thomas.

Donation to The Owls Trust

📖 My Review..

Always just on the edge of shadow, owls move silently through the dusk of evening, mysterious creatures who have featured strongly in our culture for centuries. The collective name for a group of owls is a wisdom and these ancient creatures form a backdrop to myths and legends and are strongly associated with the otherworld. Seen as spiritual messengers, the owl’s eerie cry is often interpreted as a portent of ill luck or even a harbinger of death however, there is no doubt that each sighting in the wild should be regarded as a special moment. 

“Then at the inn I had food, fire, and rest,

Knowing how hungry, cold and tired was I.

All,of the night quite barred out except

An owl’s cry, a most melancholy cry”

From The Owl by Edward Thomas 

Years ago I spent a glorious time on the Greek island of Spetses and even though I wasn’t lucky enough to spot a little owl this lovely poem brought back happy memories of a beautiful island and the rough beauty of its olive trees :

‘We strolled along the sea road

And spied a little owl

Less a bird

Than a small clay jar

Balanced implausibly on an olive branch “

From Little Owl by AE Stallings

 

It’s been a real pleasure to read this beautiful mini-anthology which shines a much needed spotlight on this most ethereal of creatures. Each one of the ten sensitively selected poems allows us a glimpse into the life of this special bird, it would make the perfect gift instead of a card for anyone who has a special interest in nature or for those who simply love the natural world and more especially these enigmatic creatures who glide like shadows through the night.

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 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

📖 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

📖 Book Review ~ January Conversations, with dogs by Di Slaney

Valley Press
January 2025

Illustrations by Jane Burn

My thanks to the author for my copy of this book

In this tender, observational journey through the rhythms of winter walks and quiet companionship, Di Slaney captures the feeling of crisp air, frosted fields, and the warmth of connection – inviting readers to reflect on the solace of routine and the stories carried by every wagging tail.

📖 My Review…

Those who know me understand that I am more of a cat lover than I am a dog person however, I enjoy country walks and come upon many interesting people out walking their dogs and am often struck by the way that dog walkers have a penchant for conversation and how they all seem to know each other and how they often wonder where my dog is as if walking without a dog is rather lonely.

Starting on January 5th, and taking us through to the 25th January, each poem is accompanied by a lovely bright illustration which captures the essence of each poem so beautifully that it becomes a real delight to turn each page. Each poem is so well observed, I felt as if I was alongside the author, and her dog, as they walk their walks through muddy fields, glimpsing hawks, and runners and tall men with Mohican haircuts. The verses are delicately done, spare of words, sometimes succinct but always emotive with a real sense of purpose. Difficult to choose a favourite as they all deserve praise but I think 20th January and meeting a ‘widowed friend in the wood’ was so poignant, it stuck with me, and needed more than one reading.

A way with words is a phrase much used, often maligned, as it’s only when you read something by someone who really does have a way with words that you appreciate what a privilege it is to read something so beautifully put together. Coming in at forty-two pages, with twenty-one poems, you can comfortably read the poems in just a short time and yet I found myself going back over the ones I had read, maybe reading the pamphlet a couple of times and finding something different to observe each time. 

January Conversations, with dogs would make a lovely gift for anyone who likes dogs, walking in nature or just appreciating the gentle observations of country life.

About the Author

Di Slaney lives in an ancient farmhouse on the edge of Sherwood Forest in Nottinghamshire, where she runs livestock sanctuary Manor Farm Charitable Trust and independent publisher Candlestick Press. She has a degree in English and European Literature from the University of Warwick and an MA in Creative Writing from Nottingham Trent University. Di was the winner of The Plough Poetry Prize 2022, and her poems have been broadcast on BBC Radio 4, widely anthologised, and highly commended in the Forward Prize 2016 and Bridport Prize 2020. She is Poet in Residence at Nottinghamshire Local History Association.

Jane Burn is an award-winning poet, hybrid writer, artist and illustrator who lives for most of the year off-grid in Northumberland. Her illustrations have been used for many poetry book covers.

Website 

X @DiSlaney #JanuaryConversationsWithDogs

X @JaneBurn14

📖 Book Review ~ Ten Poems about Snowdrops from Candlestick Press

 

Candlestick Press
2025

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

Appearing at what can be the bleakest time of year, snowdrops hold a special place in our hearts. There is something valiant in the way they emerge from the cold earth to stand in shivering clusters when we are busy keeping warm indoors.

Perhaps it’s this quality of apparent resilience that appeals to us – and makes snowdrops so popular with poets. This delightfully varied selection captures their many meanings – from Tennyson’s “February fair-maid” to Jim Stewart’s image of snowdrops as “the last lights out”.

For Wordsworth it is humility that characterises them most of all:

“Lone Flower, hemmed in with snows and white as they

But hardier far, once more I see thee bend

Thy forehead, as if fearful to offend…”

from ‘To a Snowdrop’ by William Wordsworth

These are poems to be enjoyed at any time of year, offering a welcome reminder that even in the depths of winter, spring is quietly at work preparing its many joys.

Poems by Diana Hendry, Rosie Storey Hilton, Zaffar Kunial, Paula Meehan, Sarah Salway, AE Stallings, Jim Stewart, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Mary Webb and William Wordsworth.

Cover illustration by Alexandra Buckle.

Donation to Snowdrop Project.

📖 My Thoughts..

I love snowdrops. There is something so incredibly stalwart about this little beauty which rises to the challenge of an icy cold winter to reward us with its fairy like blooms and a whisper of magic. Coming across a hidden clump of snowdrops on a winter walk is quite special and I always stop to take their photograph as reward for their stoicism.

© Jaffareadstoo

This collection of ten lovely poems celebrates this little beauty with poems which make your heart sing and capture the snowdrop’s ethereal splendour. The collection gets underway with a classic poem:

Many, many welcomes,

February fair-maid

Ever as of old time,

Solitary firstling,

Coming in the cold time,

From The Snowdrop by Alfred Lord Tennyson

The other nine poems are equally as beautiful, each capturing the resilience of snowdrops, reminding us that spring is starting to show its face and with the arrival of these tiny white flowers we witness a subtle change in the season:

My white petals

Semaphore that spring is on its way,

Spell out the garden’s true light.

From In the cool light of the winter sun by Sarah Salway

There is so much to enjoy in this collection which will definitely appeal to anyone who loves flowers in general or instead of a card to celebrate the beauty of this special little flower.

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 Museums from Candlestick Press

Candlestick Press
2024

Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

In these vivid poems selected by David Clarke we enter museums both real and imaginary to discover a host of beguiling artefacts.

Museums manage to contain whole worlds. They can show us life as it was lived in past centuries or prompt us to imagine how the future might unfold. Some of the objects in a museum may be workaday, but they have a remarkable power to express deep truths about our human lives. In the ‘room of clocks’ at the British Museum:

“Time thickens here, revolves,

regards itself in mirrors;

almost, each minute holds its place.”

from ‘Visit to the British Museum’ by Frances Horovitz

What characterises every museum is the ability to inspire a sense of wonder and possibility. Museums are places we should cherish and these poems demonstrate and celebrate that compelling fact.

Poems by Alison Brackenbury, David Clarke, Glyn Edwards, Suzannah Evans, Helen Farish, Thomas Hardy, Frances Horovitz, Robert Minhinnick, Tom Sastry and Lesley Saunders.

Cover illustration by Jane Burn.

📖 My Thoughts...

I love a good museum, be it some grand establishment, or a tiny local treasure tucked away on a back street somewhere, there is something quite magical about searching glass cabinets for that glimpse of our long ago past. I remember my very first museum, it was a school trip to the British Museum in London. The whole excursion captured my imagination, from the exciting journey by train from the North West ,and my first ever visit to our capital, the magic still remains.

This fine collection of ten poems captured my imagination in the same way, from its stunning cover and the Wedgewood blue of its end papers, to the fascinating content and the reminder that in visiting museums we are looking for a glimpse into the lives of those who have gone before and who have laid the foundations of the lives we live today. I remember being with a group of primary schoolchildren as they explored domestic items in a local museum, items which would have been in common use in the early part of the twentieth century, and enjoying their questioning minds I reminded them that one day items they take for granted will become artifacts in a  museum. Time passes, but things remain.

"Bobbin, Hook and tools my father's 

farming uncle might have had a use for.

Crazed china, stamped with coronation heads

Green bottles dulled by patent medication.

Mangles. Smocks and dominos. A copper

jelly mould shaped like a sleeping hare"

From The Museum of Lincolnshire Life by David Clarke

I find that the lull after Christmas is a perfect time to visit a museum and we are so lucky to have so many to choose. This lovely collection of poetry has certainly whetted my appetite for a visit to a museum but if that's not possible then Ten Poems about Museums is the next best thing, or perhaps give 'instead of a card' to someone who loves a good museum.

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

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National Poetry Day 2024 ~ Landmark news from Candlestick Press !

 

** A MILLION PAMPHLETS SOLD **

Candlestick Press
October 2024

Candlestick Press, the Nottingham-based independent publisher of mini-anthologies in the Ten Poems about series, is celebrating the achievement of its millionth pamphlet sale – a major landmark that reflects recent expansion into overseas territories such as Australia and New Zealand and a fast-growing domestic network encompassing everything from garden centres to art galleries. 

Candlestick is marking this milestone with a number of celebrations, including Ten Poems of Light – a pamphlet publishing in October (cover illustration by Rebecca Vincent) which contains the winning poems in a recent competition, alongside a special commission by poet Carole Bromley. A donation from each sale of Ten Poems of Light will be made to Starlight Children’s Foundation.

Indeed, Candlestick makes regular donations to a large number of charities, each chosen to reflect a pamphlet’s particular theme. Over £320,000 has been donated to date, to organisations ranging from Our Dementia Choir to Surfers Against Sewage, and from Friends of the Elderly to Woodland Trust.

Publisher Di Slaney reflects on Candlestick’s 16-year journey:

“Selling one million pamphlets means that at least ten million poems have been read – something that makes us very happy. If we have an overall mission, it’s to bring poetry to people who might not otherwise read it. Our themed selections are designed to appeal to popular enthusiasms – everything from baking to gardening and trains to bees. Our aim is to be as inclusive as possible and to offer something that works equally well as a gift and as a replacement for a greetings card.”

Candlestick’s current range comprises over 120 titles, featuring poems by more than 750 poets from all over the world and showcasing the work of a large number of contemporary artists and printmakers.

For Candlestick Press and the uniquely appealing ‘instead of a card’ format, the future is certainly very bright indeed.

About Candlestick

Candlestick is an 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 a personal message. Their subjects include Mountains, Clouds, Walking, Birds, Wine and Happiness.

Our pamphlets are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, galleries, museums and garden centres nationwide and are available to order online.

We’ve been publishing poetry pamphlets since 2008 not only for people who already love poetry, but also for those who will love it but perhaps don’t know that yet. Our ‘instead of a card’ pamphlets make an ideal alternative to a mainstream greetings card and are a small gift in their own right. They have matching envelopes and bookmarks left blank for your message, and are excellent companions on journeys or for a bedtime read. By supporting us, you help an independent press and our supported charities at the same time as treating yourselves, your friends and family to some wonderful poems.

****

Jaffareadstoo has been extremely privileged to have been given the opportunity to read and review a variety of these beautiful poetry pamphlets. 

On National Poetry Day 2024, we send Candlestick Press our warmest congratulations on this amazing achievement. Here’s to the next million pamphlets being sold.

🎄 Festive Book Review ~ Almanac : Twelve Poems for 2024 from Candlestick Press

🎄Time for some lovely festive reads 🎄

Candlestick Press
September 2023

My thanks to the publisher for my copy of this pamphlet

In this Almanac for 2024 you’ll find beautiful poems old and new, chosen to keep you company through the year.

We open with a poem that moves from mud and greyness to a vision of springtime-in-waiting, glimpsed in “a clutch of green spears”. Summer brings strawberries and swims by moonlight, while autumn is full of birds:

“Today I’m noticing wings – a swan

spreads its pinions wide, drinks

late, strange warmth from October skies.”

from ‘Callings’ by Sue Burge

The selection ends with a paean to winter sunshine, and an evening à deux beside an open fire. Poetry can find wonder in all seasons and all weathers, and this mini-anthology will bring delight from January to December.

Poems by Robert Browning, Sue Burge, Josephine Corcoran, Lucy Dixcart, Nicolette Golding, Lucy Ingrams, Stephen Keeler, DH Lawrence, Edna St Vincent Millay, Henrietta Cordelia Ray, Angela Readman and Edward Thomas.

Cover illustration by Angie Lewin.

🎄 My Review..

The older I get and the more I love to read an almanac. There is something quite special about starting a new year, looking forward and observing the changes of the seasons. This beautifully produced almanac includes poems which cover the twelve months of the year, each exploring changing times. As always, it is inspiring to see the work of lesser known poets alongside more recognised poems.

One of my favourite poets Edna St Vincent Millay is represented in She had Forgotten How the August Night

“..She had forgotten how the August night

Was level as a lake beneath the moon, 

In which she swam a little, losing sight

Of shore…”

I have particularly enjoyed dipping into and out of this rather special collection, finding something to enjoy in each of the featured poems and observing how the twelve months of the year unfold in imaginative detail. From the dark of winter, to the promise of spring, and from the brightness of summer to the browning colour palette of autumn there is something for everyone to enjoy.

Another of my favourites is from There’s nothing like the sun by war poet, Edward Thomas

“..There’s nothing like the sun as the year dies

Kind as it can be, this world being made so,

To stones and men and beasts and birds and flies,

To all things that it touches…”

Almanac : Twelve Poems for 2024 celebrates the new year in style. It would be a perfect Christmas gift for anyone who loves good poetry or instead of a card to celebrate the start of another new year which is filled with hope and promise.

🍷Best read with...a celebratory glass of champagne

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.

X @poetrycandle

Website