Little Black Book: Exhibition Cards for Imaginary Paintings

 

Mini anthology: 'Exhibition Cards for Imaginary Paintings' - see here

 

These stylish Little Black Books arrived in the post today as my contributor copies from the Hedgehog Poetry Press. 

Participating poets were invited to write an imaginary gallery label for an imaginary artwork. 

Each of the eleven selected entries is accompanied by a few details pertaining to size of work, type of media etc. I don't want to give too much away, but my poem has something to do with a wild creature in the woods - or does it?

Little Black Books are staple-bound and the size of a postcard or pocket-book.

 

'World Poetry Anthology' edited by Hassanal Abdullah

 

 

David Gill and I are delighted to be included in this new anthology of poetry from across the globe, compiled and edited by Hassanal Abdullah to mark 25 years of his international poetry journal, Shabdaguchha.

This volume published by Darklight Publishing (New York and Mexico) features, among many others, poems by Pablo Neruda, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Peter Thabit Jones (poet, writer and editor of The Seventh Quarry Press), Louise Glück and Lidia Chiarelli.  

You can buy the anthology here. 

David's poem is a nod to Edward Thomas. My poem, 'Preseli Blue', concerns a bluestone from Stonehenge and was triggered by the sight of one of these boulders on display in the National Botanic Garden of Wales, way back in 2001.  

Previous post: click here.

'Winter', a Special Solstice eBook

Shingle Street, looking inland from the Suffolk coast (taken 17 Dec. 2023)

 

May I wish you all 

a happy Christmas 

and a productive New Year.

 

Mark Davidson, editor at The Hedgehog Poetry Press, has brought out the fourth in his seasonal Stickleback eBooks. Winter is published today to coincide with the Solstice. The anthology contains ten poems, including my 'Christmas Questions'. You can download a free copy here. 

P.S. My previous post concerns two international anthologies, one from Romania and the other from the USA. Do take a look here. My poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight (The Seventh Quarry Press) can be ordered here. 

Nativity scene from St Peter and St Paul, Peasmarsh

 

A New Volume from Romania

 

 

Those who have popped across to this blog over the years will know that I have had links for many years with Orizont Literar Contemporan, the international literary journal from Romania produced by Daniel Dragomirescu. This new volume, Retrospectiva Revistei, highlights the writing of fifteen writers of 'prose, poetry and essays' who come from very different parts of the world, including Chile, Romania, USA and Portugal. 

 

A few pages have been allocated to each of the selected contributors to the journal. Each set of pages contains an author bio with photograph, a CV and a sample piece of work. 

 

 

I am very grateful to Daniel for including me in such an international list and for profiling my work and my poetry collection in this way. Driftwood by Starlight can be purchased from The Seventh Quarry shop (link here). 

 

POSTSCRIPT

Speaking of international volumes, I am excited to learn that the new World Poetry Anthology (Darklight Publishing), edited by Hassanal Abdullah, has just been published. It contains poems by Pablo Neruda, Peter Thabit Jones, Aeronwy Thomas, Stanley Kunitz, Lidia Chiarelli and John Kinsella. My Stonehenge poem, 'Preseli Blue', and my husband, David Gill's poem, 'Gloucestershire in The Negev' have also been included. 

International Dylan Thomas Day, 14 May 2023

 

Laugharne

Wishing all my friends 

a Happy International Dylan Day

2023

 

David and I enjoyed many happy visits to Laugharne and the Carmarthenshire coast from our Swansea home. You can barely make out the Writing Shed, but the Dylan Thomas Boathouse is the last white building beyond the castle on this side of the estuary, where the tidal stream bends to the left. You can see it more clearly in the photograph below.

Lidia Chriarelli* has once again curated an anniversary website to mark the occasion - here. My thanks to Lidia for including my Swansea-based contribution, a picture-poem. You will find it here, if you click the link and then scroll down. 

You might also be interested in Dear Dylan, an anthology of Dylan-inspired poetry and prose from Indigo Dreams Publishing, edited by Anna Saunders and Ronnie Goodyer. This volume (see here) was published on #DylanDay 2021 and contains one of my poems, 'Tentacles and Tar'. 

Laugharne, evening light

* There is an expansive interview with Lidia Chiarelli here in The Poet online; do take a look.

 

 

WORLD POETRY DAY

 

 

I hope everyone has been enjoying World Poetry Day, 2023. Some of us 'celebrated' with a trip to the dentist ... but I am just in time to say that Spring, a new Stickleback download, has been produced by Mark Davidson of the Hedgehog Poetry Press. It contains one of my ekphrastic poems. Do take a look here. 

The photo above shows me with my poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight, which can be purchased from Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press here. The poems concern heritage, conservation, Cornwall, our fragile coast and other topics.

'Voices For The Silent', New Anthology from Indigo Dreams Publishing

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What can poetry do?  

There have been many who advocate art for art's sake, or l'art pour l'art, as the slogan was initially rendered in nineteenth century France. 

There have also been many, and indeed there are an ever-increasing number, of artists (in the broadest sense) who see their work as a focus for, or extension of, their activism. 

I feel fortunate to have had poems included in a variety of charity anthologies over the years, raising funds and awareness for Macmillan Cancer Support, Welney WWT and the Born Free Foundation, to name but three. 

I am delighted to add another to the list in the form of Voices for the Silent (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2022), the new companion volume to For the Silent (Indigo Dreams Publishing, 2019), edited by Ronnie Goodyer, Poet-in-Residence at the League Against Cruel Sports. These companion (or stand-alone) volumes have been produced to aid the work of this charity, and not surprisingly some of the selected poems concern animal cruelty. Others focus on habitats and the wonders and complexities of the natural world. 

The new book includes poems by well-known names such as Margaret Atwood, Gillian Clarke, Pablo Neruda, Philip Larkin, John Clare, Mary Oliver, William Cowper, William Blake and Thomas Hardy, alongside a host of contributors who are part of the contemporary poetry scene.

Voices for the Silent costs £15 in Great Britain. Prices for other parts of the world are listed on the Indigo Dreams Publishing website. The book includes six wonderful pages of illustrations by Sam Cannon. The superb cover photographs are by Andy Parkinson.  

Subjects in the anthology range from a stag to a sparrowhawk, from a Chequered Skipper butterfly to an elephant. My poem, 'Basking Shark Blues', was inspired by the brooding Hebridean waters off the coast of Skye where I spent an evening watching one of these gentle giants of the ocean.

 

Evening, Loch Scavaig, Isle of Skye