Sand On The Stairs
Poems by Helen Scadding
Sand on the Stairs is a vividly sensory collection of poems built on domestic and familial themes. But these poems also wander boldly out of doors, along the borderlands of river and coast, carefully observing and recording, with a tender and humane voice that is both musical and crafted. Whether exploring memories through an old piano, a gift of a butter dish, or someone’s sandy footsteps left on the stairs – these memorable poems are alive to the traces we leave of ourselves in each other’s lives. Andy Brown
I admire all these poems: they are taut without sacrificing the lyrical, with an emotional range from image-laden depth to poignant humour. Roselle Angwin
Helen Scadding’s poems have precise evocations of time and place. Yet for each ‘here’ a poem will offer an ‘elsewhere’. The past is remembered in the immediate moment. Each presence reminds us of an absence. She writes of loss and diminishment with cool accuracy and a warmth of feeling. Tim Dooley
ISBN 978-1-0196455-2-0
£4
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Fresh Start
Poems by Rose Cook
Author’s note: A Shepherd’s Calendar is a poem that consists of twelve eclogues. Each eclogue is named after a different month, which represents the turning of seasons. A quote from John Clare is included for each month.
This beautiful new Shepherd’s Calendar will take you on a poetic journey through the year. I love it! Tom Cook
The poems are immediate, dense.…as in Clare’s work, they convey a detached love realised in a multiplicity of voices. It’s in lingering over original details of the natural environment that their emotion is conveyed. Lines from ‘June’ ring of nostalgia, and in ‘May’, there is an optimistic abundance. Hope remains the prevailing spirit. Only once or twice, as in ‘July’, are we reminded of our early twenty-first century predicament, in a way that offers an interesting parallel to Clare’s sympathy for the needy of his time. Sally Festing (Sphinx OPOI review Jan 2022)
A beguiling mix of pastoral and personal that I’ve enjoyed very much. Gwen Woolley
A beautiful book that would make a lovely gift. Rebecca Gethin
ISBN 978-1-919645-0-6
£4
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Glory Days
Poems by Kerry Darbishire & Kelly Davis
Two assured poets recreate for us the deepest experiences in a woman’s life. We live them again through the prism of our own lives, and we are changed. I love the excoriating honesty of Kelly’s work, set against the quiet intensity of Kerry’s. These women have been there, as we have. Both are such distinct and individual voices, yet together their power is more than the sum of their parts. This collection is a hymn, a paean, to the passion and thrust of life, with all its joy and sadness. Angela Locke
Glory Days is an exploration, in poetry, of the different phases of a woman’s life. Kelly Davis and Kerry Darbishire write about the experience of growing up female and the different roles and expectations girls have to face up to. At the centre of the collection is a series of moving poems about the relationships of mothers and daughters. These poems are both intimate and powerful. Kathleen Jones
Two poets explore their lives from childhood right through to their own motherhood, and then the problem of looking after ageing parents. Together the poems make a highly poignant collection, marked above all by striking honesty. Gill McEvoy
ISBN 978-1-8381090-8-8
£4
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Distance Writing
Poems by Margaret Seymour
As haunting and mysterious as the Norfolk landscapes they reside in, you can smell the salt tang of sea air in these poems and the acrid reek of coal smoke. The worlds Seymour writes of (both natural and manmade) come alive under her pen. She is deft and original in her use of language. The scenes she sets are as vivid as paintings but never static – she places the reader right there in the midst of the action – like a poetic magic trick. Julia Webb
The poems in Distance Writing are intensely lyrical, humane, carefully observed and full of unexpected turns as each poem looks to understand its subject, whether mushroom farm workers, the Matterhorn, an early ’60’s Commer Cob van. Each is an inquiry beyond the surface, going to a depth that reveals so much more: human connection, memory, what’s lost and found. The poems are wise and often joyful, though at times a slight unease flickers behind the rich imagery punctuating the journey each poem takes. This is writing that cares as well as surprises. I can’t recommend this collection enough. Andrea Holland
ISBN 978-1-8381070-5-7
£4
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No Country
Poems by Jennifer Russell
No Country looks at the courage required to survive migration. Part imagination, part experience, Jennifer Russell infuses language with a tenderness that demands attention and makes us wonder at our own frail belonging. Angela Gardner
The poems in No Country explore issues of migration and exile with great sensitivity. Jennifer Russell is an empathetic listener and is skilled at letting her speakers ‘rest in their own words’. The poems are informed both by personal experience and by the stories she has been entrusted with in her encounters with those seeking asylum. Images of the natural world are used with powerful effect to tell of the perilous journeys taken by those who leave, follow, or are left behind. This is a topical and thought-provoking collection, in which the poet does indeed ‘find love in the ink’. Emily WillsISBN
ISBN 978-1-8381979-4-0
£4
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What If?
Poems by June Hall
June Hall has stoic wit, telling insight, and confidence in her use of form in showing how the human spirit negotiates with the dilemmas of the flesh. There is a vitality throughout that offers both dark wit and spirituality in the recognition and acceptance of a second Parkinsonian self. Those who haven’t encountered Parkinson’s will learn much about life from this poet’s pathway through a complex emotional landscape. Her poems shed light on coping, on ways of living with the hard things asked of us in life. Mountains cannot be surmounted except by winding paths, says Goethe. These lovely, varied, funny, moving, striking poems use the winding paths of language to climb the mountain of Parkinson’s Disease to superb effect. Penelope Shuttle
This is the whole truth about Parkinson’s. From the very first, when she learnt the truth about her condition, to her most recent fears June Hall tells what it feels like not only to face it and despair, but also to find the courage and the humour to meet the most severe challenges. Hall writes with all her usual wit and accuracy in this collection, the profits of which all go towards Parkinson’s research. R V Bailey
ISBN 978-1-9996903-9-7
£4
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Upstart Jugglers
Poems by Chloe Balcomb
The paradox and magic of this collection… strong women in every sense, her circus artists are ‘tired of waiting and impatient for the spotlight’. They may ‘keep the personal private’ but their independence is public and intensely physical. We experience not only the glamour of the circus ring but also the stink of animals, cordite and sweat.
These women are brave but seldom fearless. They reach new heights, literally and otherwise, yet there is always the danger of catastrophe at their trapeze-clutching finger ends. Possessed by creature life ‘slick as a ferret’, they adapt, transform. Genuinely spectacular, they are both ‘artist and art’. Their male counterparts may catch them, but they’re never captured.
Chloe’s wonderful poetry conjures unforgettable images – Koringa’s snake-tattooed thigh, or Miss Lala, strap between her teeth, in ‘leather’s sour kiss’? She weaves ingenious internal rhymes and laugh-out-loud crazy, quick-fire couplets that combine elsewhere with lyrical unfoldings, slow then sudden over line and stanza breaks. Upstart Jugglers: prima performance.’ Nicky Hallett
ISBN 978-1-8381979-0-2
£4
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Shedding Feathers
Poems by Rose Cook
‘I was profoundly moved by this collection. I loved the shape-shifting thematic link between angels, birds, flight and our own creature selves. I enjoyed the occasional fanciful, quirky viewpoint – like the Virgin in ‘The Annunciation’ and particularly liked the opening lines of ‘Dark Feathers’, and the reincarnation of Charles Bukowski in ‘Help Arrives’. The lockdown mood is brilliantly captured in ‘I Said No!’ So many of the poems really spoke to me. Many delights, many gems.’ Elisabeth Rowe
‘Rose’s poems express beautifully what I’ve been trying to explain to myself. Shedding Feathers spoke to me, places I’ve been lately. A magic book.’ Gwen Woolley
‘Rose has a splendidly light touch in her use of images. Shedding Feathers is a little gem of a collection.’ Richard Skinner
ISBN 978-1-9996903-8-0
£4
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A Stolen Hour
Poems by Fokkina McDonnell
‘What a delight to read this latest pamphlet of poems by Fokkina McDonnell, a poet I have long admired and loved. It is a strong and varied collection. There are poems which show evidence of the poet’s empathy and insight, others are concerned with childhood and family and there is a strong group of ekphrastic poems which are particularly impressive. Confidently written, with economy and precision, moving, witty. By the end, I wanted to start again at the beginning.’ Carole Bromley
‘Having published Fokkina McDonnell’s first collection with Oversteps Books in 2016, I was delighted to see this pamphlet and to enjoy more of her work. Poetry that reminisces about the past can sometimes fail to appeal in the present; but that is certainly not the case with this short collection, in which McDonnell entices the reader to enter fully into the event commemorated, to meet the person remembered or to appreciate the work of art she is celebrating. I felt drawn into each of her poems.’ Alwyn Marriage
ISBN 978-1-9996903-5-9
£4
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This Is What Happens
Poems by Hilary Elfick
‘A new collection from Hilary Elfick is always cause for celebration and this is no exception. Always accessible and humane, her poems are filled with the flora and fauna and people of a life lived in two hemispheres. They have a terrific sense of place and are written in an assured and confident style. Often surprising, the poems in her latest book are a pleasure to read and revisit again and again.’ Carole Bromley
‘Hilary Elfick captures moments of intense observation coupled with reflections on a life of wide experience and deep relationships. These are poems born of years well lived, employing her deft skills at turning a line, at surprise (poems should surprise) and at evoking landscape and personalities from a rich experience of encounters with the world and its people. The canvas is broad but it’s the capture of potent detail that stays in the mind ‘The breeze can’t be bothered to lift / the dried heads of grasses that sound like the train from Barcelona’ ‘… the lazy swim of stars / their thoughts flapping like caged bell-birds.’’ Christopher North
‘These poems are so full of humanity, I am silenced after reading them.’ Caroline Carver
ISBN 978-1-9996903-3-5
£4
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Patterns of All Made Things
Poems by Sheila Aldous
‘Hauntingly and violently beautiful, this stunning poetic journey to emancipation is masterfully crafted. Sheila Aldous has the innate gift of immersing us in a raw, poignant, inspirational period of Finnish history, with an imagery and emotion that places her at the summit of her art. Threaded through with finely detailed sea and land scapes, this whole exquisite collection is very much one of place and hope. An important universal message.’ Mary Norton Gilonne
‘Sheila Aldous’ poems are not an easy read; they challenge the reader to dig deep, unpeel layers, arrive at the hidden kernel of meaning. But the effort is always worth it. This collection, inspired by the Finnish Kalevala, darkly weaves violence perpetuated by men against women into the mix, as well as Finnish mythology, amidst the echoes of a landscape harsh with ice and cold. The overall affect is not of oppression and entrapment, but of female strength, rising up again and again, striving for healing and the knitting of wounds. A complex but ultimately very rewarding collection.’ Liz Diamond
ISBN 978-1-9996903-2-6
£4
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Sightings
Poems by Rose Cook
‘Here are poems “bright as Lord Krishna’s hair’ that take great joy and delight in the wild-life of sea and shore. In an age of cynicism and depression over climate change these poems are a pure celebration of nature; to quote a line from her poem about building a stone wall, they are like “the heartings” that brim with “tumble and lustre”. A truly uplifting collection.’ Gill McEvoy
‘There are poems here delightfully willing to see through the eyes of the creatures involved – whales, dogs, seals, fish, birds – while the human element is aware of itself as the inevitable record of vision. And there are poems here which speak directly to the hidden in all of us; losses which remain on the inside brought to sight/light by Cook`s tender language and deft crafting. With the ‘white sheets’ on the washing line, Cook surrenders to sight, while that ‘single red shirt’ acts as a warning: Look out. And up, and everywhere, all the time, because it`s a good thing. Because it helps.’ Sandra Tappenden
ISBN 978-1-9996903-0-4
£4
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Backlit
Poems by Jennifer Russell
‘Jennifer Russell’s lucid and eloquent poems face unflinchingly the pains of our contemporary condition: public, personal and local. She is in the best sense an engaged poet who refuses to be reconciled or indifferent to the suffering we witness in the distance…the crises and outrages we grow inured to are listed here without apology. The long political perspective is given depth by association with tensions of family and locality which are familiar to all of us, and by a wonderful touch with nature poems on birds and weather. The final sentiment is of hope and belief in life’. Bernard O’Donoghue
‘This tender, dryly funny and clear-eyed collection watches our world with a sharp wisdom. It asks, if we try to paint war, to speak of sorrow, of horror, what colour tears would be. Her sparse, vigorous language is also alive to nature’s solace and to the fissures in belonging many of us know. A bold and brilliant debut.’ Cherry Smyth
ISBN 978-0-9933756-8-2
£4
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Aside From Our Bright Lives
Poems by Mary Dingee Fillmore
‘In this slender book we find loss, leavened with love, humour without cynicism, hard-hitting politics without rancour, the tenderness of a maturing love affair, the value of ‘friends/who held my heart on a string’. Fillmore also writes about the Holocaust with anything but easy pity: ‘Wherever I am/the striding boots still herd reluctant shoes/past my house’ In Farewell Letters Thrown from the Deportation Train, after two verses describing the terrifying events that led to that bleak and terrible cattle truck journey she follows with ‘These few came here, to the Museum, and they are all/addressed to me/every single letter addressed/to me and you.’And at the last, a beautiful determination to let ‘passion’s gilded altar’ go, in order to worship ‘at love’s wooden roadside shrine.’ All in 30 pages!’ Kate Foley
ISBN 978-0-9933756-7-5
£4
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Hourglass
Poems by Elsa Fischer
‘Elsa Fischer’s Hourglass tracks the sand as it is running down and out, observing the last rituals, the rites of diminishment in a retirement home with a clear eye and an ironic ear. ‘Like ducks waiting for the cull’ the old people get their flu jabs. All is terminally non-denominational, the ceremonial tea lights leading inexorably to the underground car park where the dead are discretely stowed ‘when only insomniacs like me / watch the tail lights fade.’ These sharp, intriguingly angled poems mark a debut as much as testify to the end.’ Padraig Rooney
‘Who knew so much went on in a retirement home? Elsa Fischer records with minute observation the detail and nuances of living in a retirement community. Her poems are full of humour, empathy and occasional rage.’ Ilse Pedler
ISBN 978-0-9933756-6-8
£4
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Mixter-maxter
Poems by Fran Baillie
‘An engaging read, with a mixture (as the title suggests), of poems in Scots and English. Fran Baillie’s Scots is exuberant, often using phonetic spelling to give a sense of dialect. She also occasionally mixes English with Scots in the same poem. The overall effect is of a fresh, attractive voice addressing a wide range of subject matter, from wry c omments on Keats and Donne and acutely observed commentary on nature to tender musings on family members. A great deal to like, to savour, in this vibrant pamphlet.’ Sheila Templeton
ISBN 078-0-9933756-3-7
£4
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The Outshift Places
Poems by Hilary Elfick
‘ With gentle humour, lyricism and technical skill, Elfick speaks of many of the darker elements of experience, including the deaths of a close friend and small brother. Other poems are imaginative explorations with the past such as Patmos at the time of St John, or the age of cave art and the poet’s deep personal connection with the portrayal of Konic ponies.’ Elizabeth Rapp
‘The overall voice is elegaic – but never valedictory. These are poems full of questions and maybes, as though the past was a notebook full of drafts and false starts. We had the experience, missed the meaning. We want to go back and make different choices. We want to make amends. And when we can’t we want the serenity to live with that truth. And that’s worth celebrating.’ John Foggin
ISBN 978-0-9933756-2-0
£4
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Until It Rains
Poems by Hilary Stobbs
‘Running through the assured and enthralling poems of this debut chapbook, Until It Rains, is Hilary Stobbs’ ability to make seeing happen in different shades of light: ‘pale light’, ‘moonlight’, ‘slate light’, ‘early light’. Each concise poem enables the reader to see more clearly, more sharply. The reader is compelled to ask the question: What are the rules of seeing?‘ Olive M Rich
ISBN978-0-9933756-1-3
£4
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Seeing It Through
Poems by June English
‘These poems have the ring of authenticity. Here are the memories of a woman who grew up in wartime and took for granted such things as rationing and bombing raids. Many of the poems speak in the voice of her childhood self, recounting the wonder and fun that was part of the well-documented austerity, along with the occasional grief honestly told by one who had no experience by which to measure it. This honesty is their strength. Many an older person will know and understand but there are lots of readers out there who will gasp and stretch their eyes at this collection: could it really have been like this…? And yes, yes it was. June and her poems are the real deal.’ Ann Drysdale
ISBN 978-0-9933756-0-6
£4
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Gardening with My Father
Poems by Elizabeth Hare
‘Hare pulls no punches. She doesn’t write poems just for the sake of writing. She is a poet at the edge of things… suggestion and observation work together. There’s always a continuity between subject and poet, between subject and observer, done with delicacy. Hare does well with the significance of the ordinary; and by the suggestive power of detail she gives us past and present most economically. These are laconic, unpretentious, accessible poems.’ R V Bailey
ISBN 978-0-0992693-8-6
£4
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The Buoyancy of Space
Poems by Gill Nicholson
‘These are carefully observed poems. Throughout, Nicholson reaches out to other genres, exploring photography, music and art. She is not afraid to explore form – for example in ‘Sea Shanties’, where the repetitive and obsessive nature of the sestina is used to explore the passing of time, and the moments in a life when important decisions are made. There is a sense of unease in many of the poems which is never fully resolved, but there is love as well: ‘enough to make you shake’. An enjoyable and thought-provoking read.’ Kim Moore
ISBN 978-0-9926983-0-0
£4
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Tequila and Shooting Stars
Poems by Joan Poulson
‘These poems shimmy and shimmer with vibrant colours. We experience the rich textures of relationships, clothing, friendship and landscape; the natural world is never very far away as a source of wonder and solace. Sensual, insightful, sometimes disturbing and often funny, their range is considerable: art, music, literature, food and the emotional geography of different countries. This poet cares deeply about the world and makes us care too. These are poems to relish, which like the best meals combine excellent company, delicious food, fine wine and that dash of tequila.’ Chris Woods
ISBN 978-0-9926983-1-7
£4
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Shoal Moon
Poems by Anne Boileau
‘This is a lovely collection, full of creatures quickening. Of moths, damselfies, swallows, porpoises, merlins. Anne Boileau catches the vibrancy of the senses and the sharp imprint of memory. History is immediate; its tide still salt on the lips. She has a sure eye for detail, and she waits for the unexpected – the muted revelation of lunar eclipse, or that moment when ‘the lark sang back’. These poems move between beauty and atrocity, but are always informe by that other tide, the continuity of love.’ Pauline Stainer
ISBN 978-0-9926983-2-4
£4
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Water Colour
Poems by Hilary Elfick
The poet is a photographer, but her work is painterly too. She’s built her small collection of nature poems like watercolour sketches, quick glimpses of birds and fenland. Elfick has a core poetic skill: that of noticing. Each poem is a dash of colour or a sketch of avian activity. The poems have the quiet power of the reproduced moment, the lyricism inherent in an event; although she is happy to write about the unpleasant as well as the beautiful in her landscape. Clearly this poet is fascinated by, and deeply attached to the natural world she portrays – a sometimes quiet, sometimes dramatic world. Noel Williams
ISBN 978-0-9926983-3-1
£4
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Looking Over my Shoulder at Sodom
Poems by Meg Cox
‘Dry wit, enormous empathy and humour, fierce intelligence and deep gentleness all combine with an unflinching ability to self-examine and an unerring wisdom to create poems that make you gasp with recognition, delight and admiration, at the same time as you flinch from the discomfort of facing your own demons and foibles. There are 32 poems in this book- and each has its own tone, its own story to tell, and its own surprises. Meg Cox is well on her way to becoming one of my favourite contemporary poets.’ Anna Dreda
ISBN 978-0-9926983-4-8
£4
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