Most of us can remember our first kiss, whether it was glorious and transporting or merely awkward. Kissing, it transpires, can happen anywhere – on a train, in a city park or against a kitchen fridge. The poems dramatise the fact that a kiss can make time stand still or send us into a dizzy spin: "And the world all whirling Round in joy Like the dance of a dervish..." from "Kisses in the Train" by DH Lawrence The selection wouldn’t be complete without a sly antidote to all this romance, which is why we’ve included Mary Ruefle’s ‘Why I Am Not A Good Kisser’ with its inventory of things not to do or think about when a kiss is in the offing. Poems by Kim Addonizio, Marjorie Allen Seiffert, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Burns, William Drummond of Hawthornden, Hattie Grünewald, DH Lawrence, Roddy Lumsden, David Mills, Shazea Quraishi, Mary Ruefle, Roberta Spear, Sara Teasdale and Jean Toomer.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 31-01-2024

Libraries are treasured places. We may remember visiting a local library in childhood to explore an early delight in reading. Or perhaps we have come to value them in later life, as a calm sanctuary where we can daydream among beloved books. A library is also a portal into countless worlds of knowledge, experience and adventure: “Oh, I could walk any aisle and smell wisdom, put a hand out to touch the rough curve of bound leather, the harsh parchment of dreams.” from ‘Maple Valley Branch Library, 1967’ by Rita Dove With irresistible affection, these poems celebrate the many things that libraries mean to us as we move through the phases of our lives. The poems are selected and introduced by poet Lorraine Mariner who has worked at the National Poetry Library in London for many years. Poems by Adrian Buckner, Louise Chandler Moulton, Claire Crowther, Rita Dove, Martina Evans, Edward Hirsch, Lorraine Mariner, Ian McMillan, Charles Simic and Indigo Williams.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 31-01-2024

Most of us live in cities, and there is a rich tradition of poems about their tireless hustle and bustle. In Jessica Mookherjee’s lively selection, we find poems that explore the hectic rhythms of day-to-day life in a city, as well as the rather more mysterious character of a city at night – a place where streetlights and “drunken rooftops” create a dreamscape in which anything might happen. Ever present is the sense that a city never stops: "All afternoon labouring geese fly over the city. Cars hoot, sirens fugue. Beneath bank towers, a statue shifts. A man, blue clown, blows two-note whistles for a living.” from ‘Commerce, Madrid, 2012’ by Carola Luther This mini-anthology transports us to cities real and imagined in a delightful kaleidoscope that shimmers and shifts at each rereading. Poems by Suzannah Evans, Andrew Fusek-Peters, Kapka Kassabova, Carola Luther, John McCullough, Jessica Mookherjee, Meryl Pugh, Roger Robinson, James Tate and Sara Teasdale.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 29-03-2024

Nearly all of us have an ‘auntie’ or ‘aunty’ – even if the person in question isn’t actually a relative. In these entertaining and touching poems we meet story-telling aunts and aunts who spin their own yarn, aunts who send gifts from afar and an aunt with a crew cut who knows far more about love than could ever be imagined. The poems demonstrate that the essence of being an aunt is to always be there when needed: “When your heart breaks, as hearts sometimes do, Aunt Constance at Looe will feed it on Cornish cream and philosophy, soothe it with strawberries for tea;” from ‘Aunts’ by Virginia Graham The poems – tender and wry by turn – are a reminder that aunts in all their various guises are to be treasured and celebrated. Poems by Moniza Alvi, Martin Armstrong, Charles Causley, Virginia Graham, Langston Hughes, Norman MacCaig, John McCullough, Stevie Smith, Joyce Sutphen and Christine Webb.

Bind: stationery

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 29-03-2024