'Driftwood by Starlight' Online Launch

Tin-mining country, Minions Moor, Cornwall

 

My first full length poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight (The Seventh Quarry Press, June 2021), is being launched via Zoom this evening, Tuesday 3 August 2021. 

Driftwood by Starlight can be purchased for £6.99 (UK price) from the online shop at The Seventh Quarry Press website - here.

 

Peter Thabit Jones, my publisher, will introduce The Seventh Quarry Press. I have invited Peter to read one of his 'Edward Thomas' poems in the first half. 

I will read a selection of poems (East Anglia, Wales, Cornwall ...) from the book. Guest readers, Susan Richarson and Jean Salkilld, will each read one of their poems. David (Gill) will also read one of his poems.

Jean's collection, The Familiar Road, was published by The Seventh Quarry Press in 2016. (The Suffolk poem Jean is due to read is not actually in this collection.)

Susan Richardson's poem comes from Words the Turtle Taught Me (Cinnamon Press, 2018), shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Award. 

My thanks to photographer, Laurence Hartwell, for his night-time photograph of Cadgwith on the front cover.

Thank you also to Maria Lloyd whose questions about the collection will appear in a future post on my blog ... with my answers! 

Update, 4 Aug 2021: my sincere thanks to Juliet Wilson who has posted a review on her Crafty Green Poet blog here.

 

 

My poems included in the online launch:

• The Serpentine Stile, p.9
  
• Zennor Voices, p.19
• Preseli Blue, p.37
• Monte Testaccio, Mound of Potsherds, p.35
• Treasure Hulk p.36 (For interest: the Scallop can be seen here.)
  
• The Ocean's Tears, p.24
• Isabella Tiger Moth Greets the Woolly Bear Caterpillar, p.34
• Two Penguins and a Pebble, p.44
• The Ceilidh House, p.16
• Rhossili: Writing The Worm (extracts), p.38
• Moonshine, p.27
  

 I refer to my two 'Edward Thomas' tribute poems. These are:

• Lost, p.12
• Dunwich in Winter, p.14

My poem, 'Rhossili: Writing The Worm', was first published in Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus (Parthian Books, 2004) after I had taken part in The Write Stuff, a Disability Arts Cymru initiative. I attended launches at the Hay Festival, Ty Llyn/The Dyan Thomas Centre and the National Botanic garden of Wales. 

 

'Hidden Dragons/Gwir a Grymus' (Parthian Books) launch at the Hay Festival, 2004

  I have invited ...

Peter Thabit Jones to read his poem, 'The Edward Thomas Stone in Steep' from Peter's new book, GARDEN OF CLOUDS New and Selected Poems. You can read about it and buy a copy here. There are some sample poems here and here.

Jean Salkilld to read her poem, 'At Saint Edmundsbury Cathedral'.

David Gill to read his 'Adlestrop'-inspired poem, 'Gloucestershire in the Negev', first published in The Seventh Quarry poetry magazine (2008). See also here.

I refer to the poem, 'Words' by Edward Thomas. 

 

Launch day, Tuesday 3 August 2021

 

Caroline in Cadgwith, June 2021

My website: Caroline Gill: Poetry

Find me on Twitter: @coastcard

My chapbook: The Holy Place (2012), shared with John Dotson,  and published by The Seventh Quarry Press in conjunction with Cross-Cultural Communications, New York. John was the first poet-in-residence at the Robinson Jeffers Tor House Foundation in Carmel, California.

'Driftwood by Starlight' in Cornwall: (3) Zennor and the Mermaid

Zennor, the road to St Senara's church

Those of you who have read the last couple of posts will know that on our recent visit to Cornwall we revisited some of the settings for the poems in my new poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight, published by The Seventh Quarry Press in Swansea, and available here at the UK price of £6.99.

The photo above shows me in Zennor, a village with many literary associations; writers from D.H. Lawrence to Helen Dunmore and Michael Morpurgo have written about this area. It features in one of my favourite poems, 'Zennor', by Anne Ridler (which I once requested successfully for BBC Poetry Please). It is also the setting for my poem, 'Zennor Voices', p.19 in Driftwood by Starlight.

 

  

The churchyard holds a number of interesting memorials. The one below is in memory of Dr William Borlase (1696-1772), Vicar of Zennor and well-known antiquarian.

 

This following photo shows a plaquel commemorating John Davey, one of the last fluent speakers of Cornish before plans were laid to breathe new life into the language in our own day.  

The slate sundial (1737), which adorns the south wall of the bell tower, bears the name of its maker, Paul Quick. Another local person to bear the surname 'Quick' was Henry Quick, also of Zennor, who was known for his poems.

And finally ... we come to the 'mermaid chair', linked to the local legend about a mortal man who fell in love with a mermaid. How does the story end?
 

'Driftwood by Starlight' in Cornwall: (2) The Penwith Moors

  

I have loved the moors in West Penwith for many, many years. The air is clear and there is a feeling of being almost surrounded by the sea, as it laps around edges of the peninsula below. The wide open spaces (no crowds up here, as you can see!) give rise to a sense of history and prehistory. 

 

Archaeologists and others have long mused over the meaning of the holed stone of granite in the photograph, a stone that has clearly been associated with different purposes at different times in its long existence. I expect a good number of sheep, and possibly cattle, have rubbed up against it over the centuries. The Cornish name for this monument (see signpost above) means simply 'stone with hole'. The orange arrow points to the monument.

 

You can see one of my favourite tin mine pumping engine houses (over the Greenburrow Shaft) from here. 

This particular mine has a very memorable name. My short poem about it features in my new first full collection of poetry, Driftwood by Starlight, published by The Seventh Quarry Press in Swansea, and available at the UK price of £6.99.

'Driftwood by Starlight' in Cornwall: (1) Cadgwith

 

Photo: David Gill

 

My first full poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight, was published a few days before David and I headed off to Cornwall, the setting for a number of the poems in the book.

The photograph above shows me on the foreshore at Cadgwith, a small cove on The Lizard peninsula that holds a special place in my heart. I have known and loved this area virtually all my life.

Cadgwith appears on the front cover of my book, thanks to the wonderful night-time photography of Laurence Hartwell of Through the Gaps (thank you, Laurence). What you may, or may not, have noticed is that, serendipitously, there is a boat behind my left shoulder in the photograph above called 'Starlight'. You can click on the photo to enlarge it.

 

My love affair with Cadgwith came about as a result of a poem by Lionel Johnson, which intrigued and entranced my father, and made him keen to discover the cove for himself back in the 1960s. I quote part of Johnson's poem in the book.  

 

Cadgwith at low tide, from The Todden

Driftwood by Starlight was published in June 2021 by poet and publisher, Peter Thabit Jones, at The Seventh Quarry Press. Many, but not all, of the poems have coastal settings. In addition to Cornwall, these include Wales (I lived in Swansea for 20 years), Scotland (home to ancestors on my mother's side) and Suffolk (where I live now). If you would like to purchase a copy (£6.99 UK price), please click this link to The Seventh Quarry Shop (online).  

A Book in the Hand ... 'Driftwood by Starlight', my new poetry collection

 

To my great excitement, 'advance copies' of Driftwood by Starlight, my first full-length poetry collection, have reached my Suffolk home today. Here I am holding my first copy, trying hard to keep the 1- and 2-degree burns on my left hand out of the frame! 

 

Immense thanks are due to Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press, who has enabled this wonderful day to happen. 

Driftwood by Starlight can be purchased from The Seventh Quarry Press online shop here.

Susan Richardson has generously written the back-cover blurb. The following words will give you a flavour of the collection ...

 

 

 

 

Publication Day ... 'Driftwood by Starlight', The Seventh Quarry Press

 

I am excited and delighted to announce that Peter Thabit Jones of The Seventh Quarry Press in Swansea has just published my first single-authored poetry collection, Driftwood by Starlight. I am immensely grateful to Peter.

The book can be purchased from the online shop on The Seventh Quarry website - here. 

Fellow poet, Susan Richardson, has written the following words:

 

Laurence Hartwell generously provided the cover photograph of Cadgwith Cove on The Lizard in Cornwall, UK.  

As it happens, one of my poems in the collection, Elegy for Idris Davies, is currently a Poem of the Month on the SecondLight website here. 

'On a Knife Edge', a new anthology from Suffolk Poetry Society

 

This book has just been published by Suffolk Poetry Society as a response to the diminishing state of nature. It forms part of a collaboration between the Society and The Lettering Arts Trust (Snape), where an exhibition of the same name opens in July. I am delighted to have two poems and a micro-poem about IUCN red-listed species included. 

The topic resonates closely with Robert Macfarlane's work (supported by Jackie Morris and her artwork) in response to an increasing concern over the fact that 'nature words' (the 'lost words': see here) were being removed from the 2007 edition of the Oxford Junior Dictionary. Apparently space was needed for words deemed more valuable in a digital and technical age. You can read my post here about a previous exhibition at The Lettering Arts Trust on this subject. 

On a Knife Edge was primarily created by Derek Adams, Lynne Nesbit, Beth Soule and Colin Whyles. It can be purchased here.