A mountain is something very particular – a place that entices and daunts us, that commands our gaze while also making it very clear that we’re not required. These glorious poems capture the majesty and wonder of mountain landscapes, whether they’re encountered up-close by walkers and climbers or are being marvelled at from afar by more contemplative souls. In one poem, even a failed ascent offers a moment of wonder: “The late afternoon sun comes rushing and skimming Toward you, through your eyes, And through your trembling, stiffening fingers In a dazzle of light, a burnt-gold avalanche.” from ‘On a Mountainside’ by David Wagoner. Whichever way we look at mountains, they make us feel small and these poems revel in that marvellous and uplifting thought. Poems by Li Bai, Gladys Cardiff, Emily Dickinson, Clifton Gachagua, Norman MacCaig, Helen Mort, Yvonne Reddick, Nan Shepherd, David Wagoner and David Wilson.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2023

There’s a fragrant, peachy-yellow rose called ‘poetry in motion’ – proof (if needed) of poetry’s love affair with roses, this most sumptuous of flowers. Our gorgeous mini-anthology contains all manner of roses. You’ll find a climbing rose that longs for another life, a meditation on the simple pleasure of tending roses and helping them to grow, together with a lyrical paean to the essence of the flower itself in all its scented, luscious-petalled glory: “Blossom, my darling, blossom, be a rose Of roses unchidden and purposeless; a rose For rosiness only, without an ulterior motive…” from ‘Rose of all the World’ by DH Lawrence. This selection of rose poems makes a beautiful little garden that will offer delight in every season of the year. Poems by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, David Constantine, Emily Dickinson, Lucy Eddy, DH Lawrence, Stanley Plumly, Christina Rossetti, Sara Teasdale, Eloise Unerman and Jean Valentine.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-01-2022

In this wonderful mini-anthology of poems celebrating brothers (a companion to Ten Poems about Sisters) we meet brothers of all ages and of all shapes and sizes, including the brother who: “has made, out of petrol and hormones, a little world for himself, a paradise of hang-gliders and cars;” from ‘My Lost Brother’ by Ben Scammell. There’s also a young brother who loves riding down the stairs on a tea-tray and teenage brothers who are so alike they even smell the same. There are brothers who grow up and disappear into a new life, living on vividly in the memories of those left behind. The relationship with a brother can be a complex one, and these poems explore those joys and challenges in fascinating ways. But most of all they reflect the abiding love we feel for a brother and show how this can enrich a life. Poems by Matthew Dickman, Jonathan Edwards, Lavina Greenlaw, Joanne Limburg, Hannah Lowe, Rebecca McClanahan, Rob Miles, Mary O’Donnell, Ben Scammell and Floyd Skloot.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2017

Where would we be without families, to lift us up and love us, to make us who we are? This anthology celebrates all of the humour and warmth, the strength and joy, that families bring us. We meet a doting grandfather who makes a car out of sand for his granddaughter on the beach, spend time at a ghostly Christmas family gathering, even hear of a little girl who keeps playing the video of a sister’s birth on rewind. Elsewhere, writers reflect on the way family links us across history: “I want to enter the picture, slip myself into 1903, climb into the dresses and sit on the porch, become each woman, touch the baby, find the unborn daughter I will be.” from ‘Generation’ by Cathy Stern. This charming, moving selection of poems explores the many things that ‘family’ can mean, in lines which, like families, offer us cuddles and giggles, personality and love. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Jeanette Burton, Jonathan Edwards, Jackie Kay, Vanessa Lampert, John McCullough, Sinéad Morrissey, Cathy Stern, RS Thomas and Marvin Thompson.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2022

This mini anthology is a wonderful introduction to the countless poems written about fathers and fatherhood. Father William is present, of course, a feisty figure who reminds us that age is entitled to have the last word. There’s affection and humour, alongside tender remembrance. In one poem a father carries his young daughter on his shoulders after a trip to the pantomime and realises how precious such moments are: “And I clutch you tightly for fear you blow away For fear you grow up to soon …. … And sensing this, I hold you tighter still.” from ‘Cinders’ by Roger McGough. Just as important are the everyday happenings that become special with hindsight: a family meal at which a dad contends with a hot potato, or the nightly ritual of an ageing father who insists on turning off the water before he goes to bed in case a pipe bursts while he’s asleep. Poems by Coral Bracho, Lewis Carroll, Louise Glück, Tony Harrison, Tariq Latif, Joanne Limburg, Roger McGough, Shazea Quraishi, Michael Rosen and Siriol Troup.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-03-2012

We’ve had so many requests for a pamphlet about friends and friendship, and finally it’s here! This insightful selection of ten funny, poignant and refreshingly honest poems deals with the reality of friendship in all its forms. From childhood alliances at school through the angst of teenage years into companionship and the redemption of old age, Lorraine Mariner shows that friendship poems come in as many different shapes and sizes as our friends themselves. “Half my friends are dead. I will make you new ones, said earth. No, give them back, as they were, instead, with faults and all, I cried.” from ‘Sea Canes’ by Derek Walcott. Poems by Edwin Brock, Polly Clark, Elizabeth Jennings, Jackie Kay, Lorraine Mariner, Alden Nowlan, May Sarton, Stevie Smith, Derek Walcott and Emily Wills.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-10-2016

Being old isn’t what it used to be. Sixty is the new forty. The world is full of expressions designed to make us feel better about the inevitable passing of the years. This fascinating mini-anthology of poems selected by John McCullough – which includes the three winners of our ‘getting older’ poetry competition – opens with an enlivening meditation on the meanings of the word ‘spry’. The speaker delights in hopping up and down some hotel stairs when no one is looking and in the fact of being “inescapably me”. It matters not one jot that he is: “like a dancer running out of melody, a boulevardier running out of boulevard, a prizewinner running out of shelf;” from ‘Hop’ by Alasdair Paterson. The poems look in both directions; backwards to heydays of young love and time deliciously misspent, and forwards to the perils and thrills of middle age and beyond. Poems by Elizabeth Bishop, Emily Dickinson, Rita Dove, Mark Granier, John McCullough, Frank O’Hara, Alasdair Paterson, Elvire Roberts, Judith Shaw and Jackie Wills.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2021

This title from Candlestick Press is something of a departure: all the poems have been chosen by pupils at Headington School and the selection includes contributions written by the students themselves and by their English teacher, Liz Soar. The pupils were diligent editors and their choices reflect the multicultural world in which they are growing up. There’s a poem in three languages about a joyful reunion with a grandparent arriving from overseas and another in which a Muslim grandmother raises eyebrows in a posh department store by washing her feet in the sink in the ladies’ room. But the abiding spirit of the selection is the sense of safety and comfort we feel in the company of a beloved grandparent. Joan Johnston’s tiny poem ‘Safe’ captures the feelings of a child tucked up in bed while a grandmother busies herself downstairs in the kitchen. Or as Andrew Waterhouse says so touchingly, it’s simply about: “feeling his heat, knowing the slow pulse of his good heart.” from ‘Climbing my Grandfather’ by Andrew Waterhouse. Poems by Tiffany Atkinson, John Burnside, Katie Cleverley, Vicki Feaver, Joan Johnston, Katerina de Jong / Anastasia Matveeva / Minnah Rashid, Mohja Kahf, Derek Mahon, Liz Soar and Andrew Waterhouse.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2017

“If ever two were one, then surely we.” So says the seventeenth-century poet Anne Bradstreet. These days, her portrayal of the marriage bond as one of unconditional mutual devotion might underestimate the complexity of the husband/wife relationship. The other poems in this vivid and entertaining mini-anthology go on to celebrate just that. Our selection offers moments of tenderness, romance and wry humour. There’s a poem in which a newly-married woman reflects on the “woosh” sound of the word wife and another where a man wonders about a woman he’s never met, as if he could have married her. We encounter a mysterious wife who arrives when the tide is right, while for Tiffany Atkinson a husband is like a farmers’ market, his heart “…a loom of many rhizomes”. These beguiling poems are arranged in pairs so they speak to each other across the page – rather like a husband and wife engrossed in conversation across an old kitchen table. Poems by Moniza Alvi, Tiffany Atkinson, Mike Barlow, Anne Bradstreet, Angela Carter, Choman Hardi, Paul Henry, Ada Limón, Linda Pastan, RS Thomas and Tiphanie Yanique.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-02-2019

This wonderful mini-anthology of poems is a celebration of the many ways in which mothers are important in our lives. We meet the bedtime-story-reading mother with her special bedtime story voice, and the mother who loves to cook with fruit and vegetables from her patch at the bottom of the garden. Then there’s the elderly mother who can still manage a couple of “quick two minute waltzes” to Abba or Queen when her son comes to visit. This mother’s relationship with her son is complex, but nevertheless there is love. There are also poems that celebrate the precious memories we hold after our mothers are no longer with us. When a man hears a woman singing he is transported back: “To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.” from ‘Piano’ by DH Lawrence. These poems will make you laugh and cry – and sometimes both. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Mona Arshi, Gillian Clarke, Maura Dooley, Jonathan Edwards, Jackie Kay, DH Lawrence, James Reeves, John Siddique and Benjamin Zephaniah.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-01-2011