There are a number of artistic projects commemorating the end of the First World War, and this book, Towards the light, represents one that is particularly close to my heart.
Pam Job and Judith Wolton embarked on a poetry enterprise that would lead to the production of two anthologies, one on conflict (so too have the doves gone) at the beginning of the commemorative period, and now this one on reconciliation to mark the end of the hostilities.
Sadly the snow meant that a number of us had to miss the launch at the Essex Book Festival, but there will be other events as the year goes by.
Poets who had been involved in the initial anthology project were invited to submit work for the second. Editor, Vivien Whelpton, selected my acrostic poem, 'Et in terra pax', about the surreal yet hopeful time when strains of 'Adeste fidelis' rang out across No Man's Land.
The new anthology, published by Kapaju Books (2018), sports a cover design by Karen Dennison. It includes a Preface by the editor, who writes that...
'Vivid metaphors bring home to us both the pain and difficulty of reconciliation and the joy it brings...'
