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

INCLUDES POSTCARDS Kindness can be an underestimated virtue in our increasingly hectic and impersonal world. It is a word that we use most often in our conversations with young children when we tell them to be kind to a fellow creature or a new friend. These generous poems remind us that kindness can take many forms and that a kind gesture doesn’t have to be either time-consuming or complicated. On the contrary: “Sometimes a sober voice is enough to calm the waters & drive away the false witnesses,” from ‘Kindness’ by Yusef Komunyakaa. Edited by Jackie Kay and containing two new poems she has written specially for the anthology, this moving selection is allied to a compelling cause. ‘Felix’s Campaign of Kindness’ was instigated by the mother of Felix Alexander, a 17-year-old boy who took his own life after years of online bullying. The pamphlet is dedicated to the memory of Felix and contains the inspirational open letter written by his mother after his death. Jackie Kay is one of the foremost poets writing in Britain today. She has published numerous poetry collections and a memoir, Red Dust Road, about her quest to find her birth parents. She was the third modern Makar, the Scottish Poet Laureate. Included are two special edition postcards featuring poems by Olga Dermott-Bond and Zoë Green, who were the winners in our Kindness Poem Competition. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ian Duhig, Sarah Howe, Jackie Kay, Yusef Komunyakaa, Norman MacCaig, Sylvia Plath, Rabindranath Tagore and Kae Tempest.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 28

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-09-2023

We couldn’t survive without hope – that light at the end of the tunnel which seems to promise ‘this will pass’ when times are hard. These poems offer hope in a whole range of guises – from the uplift of the first signs of spring to the infectious optimism of a child who believes he will live for ever if he eats his greens. There’s also a poem in which a grandmother’s words become a precious talisman: “…empty your paradise onto a desk: your white sands, green hills and fresh fish. Shine the lamp on it like the fresh hope of morning, and keep staring at it till you sleep.” from ‘A Portable Paradise’ by Roger Robinson. Each of these poems is a little chink of light – a reminder that a moment of joy and consolation is always just around the corner. Poems by Fleur Adcock, Sujata Bhatt, Arthur Hugh Clough, Katie Dunstan, Kerry Hardie, Winifred Holtby, Roy Marshall, Paula Meehan, Roger Robinson, Laura Theis and Walt Whitman.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-12-2022

Happiness: the mid-point, perhaps, between contentment and joy. We all hope for it, but we all also have times when it seems far away. Sometimes, we even fail to notice when it’s there. These poems don’t celebrate rapture or feverish delight. Mostly they capture moments of what Emily Dickinson calls “casual simplicity” – giggling irreverently during a yoga class or seeing a dragonfly land on a lake. Happiness, they seem to say, is far less complicated than we sometimes imagine: “It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker, and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots in the night.” from ‘Happiness’ by Jane Kenyon. Deborah Alma is a poet and poetry tutor, also known as the Emergency Poet offering the world’s first mobile poetry first aid service. Her delightful and thoughtful selection is sure to lift the spirits and gladden the heart. Poems by Deborah Alma, Meg Cox, Emily Dickinson, Jonathan Davidson, Tony Hoagland, Jane Kenyon, Bryony Littlefair, Naomi Shihab Nye, RS Thomas and James Wright.

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Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-07-2019

A wedding isn’t a wedding without a poem. The enduring quality of great poetry seems to promise that all will be well for a couple on the threshold of marriage. You’ll be dazzled by the brilliance and beauty of this selection, which offers everything from heartfelt blessings to reflections on the rich rewards of married life. And of course there are also declarations of love: “But for now, we make our promises gently. This extraordinary day we have made. Listen – the birds in their ordinary heaven.” from ‘Vow’ by Clare Shaw. Whether you’re seeking a poem to read at a marriage ceremony or a gift for a soon-to-be-married friend, this anthology sparkles like a jewel, with something for every imaginable kind of wedding. Poems by Kathryn Bevis, John Donne, Michael Donaghy, Sasha Dugdale, Kahlil Gibran, Jane Hirshfield, Li-Young Lee, William Meredith, Alice Oswald and Clare Shaw.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2023

John Keats’ “beaker of the warm South” must be the most famous glass of wine in poetry. Who could fail to remember the “beaded bubbles” and the “purple-stained mouth”? We can almost taste the rich berry notes as we read. This selection features part of that much-loved paean to a luscious red, alongside poems that celebrate delicious wines of other hues. We experience a grape harvest in Spain which is celebrated as a form of alchemy, and a wedding reception at which wine represents all the good things that lie ahead for the new couple. Elsewhere, one poet’s experience of a glass of Sauvignon Blanc is so intense that she almost becomes the wine as she drinks: “I can drink on my own. I am cut grass, light-bodied, off-dry.” from ‘Tasting Notes’ by Emma Storr. Poems by Li Bai, Jane Commane, Wendy Cope, Jonathan Davidson, John Keats, Gregory Leadbetter, Miriam Wei Wei Lo, Matthew Stewart, Emma Storr and James Thomson.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-04-2023

When times are tough a nice hot cuppa is often our first port of call. But in these poems, tea drinking is a far more varied and entertaining activity than this; the intimacy of sharing a pot is a prompt for all manner of surprising conversations and revelations. These ten poems also celebrate quiet moments alone with a lovingly prepared cup of tea. In one poem an almond blossom tea is a gentle reminder of all there is to be grateful for after a serious illness which: “… seems, honestly, a trifle now that steam and scent and strength and steep and infusion say thank you thank you thank you for the then, and now” from ‘Procedure’ by Jo Shapcott. Ten Poems about Tea is for all tea drinkers, be they Earl Grey or English Breakfast, cup or mug. We hope you’ll enjoy the poems with a cuppa made with your very favourite leaves. Poems by John Agard, John Arlott, Tiffany Atkinson, John Betjeman, Eavan Boland, Sheila Hackney, Thomas Hardy, Kenny Knight, Michael Longley and Jo Shapcott.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-04-2011

This second edition of our popular mini-anthology calls at every stop on love’s roller-coaster journey – from the first dizzy declarations of passion, to the clear-eyed devotion of a couple in old age. In one of the most celebrated of modern love poems, we sense the boundless optimism of love at full tilt: “…you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you” from ‘i carry your heart with me’ by ee cummings. Along the way there’s also humour and warmth in the form of a battered straw hat that has come to symbolise what it means to be together for the long haul. These are poems that capture all the light and shade of love; poems to make you think and feel. The selection is edited and introduced by Lorraine Mariner, a poet and librarian who works at the National Poetry Library in London. Poems by Fleur Adcock, John Ashbery, ee cummings, Tishani Doshi, Lorraine Mariner, Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson, Sinéad Morrissey, Peter Sansom, Alfred Lord Tennyson and RS Thomas.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 20

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-05-2008

This second edition of our much-loved anthology contains poems of bereavement selected for their beauty and for the sense of consolation that they offer. There are poems that question and mourn, alongside others that accept the inevitability of death and give thanks for a life well lived. Poems old and new reflect on the experience of losing a much-loved parent, child, sibling or friend, as well as on the immense loss of life in the two World Wars. For those arranging a funeral or simply seeking the quiet company of words to help them through the long process of grieving, this varied and reflective selection is sure to offer comfort: “I lie here in a riot of sunlight Watching the day break and the clouds flying. Everything is going to be all right.” from ‘Everything is Going to Be All Right’ by Derek Mahon. Poems by WH Auden, Laurence Binyon, Robert Burns, Gaius Valerius Catullus, Billy Collins, Wendy Cope, Emily Dickinson, Sasha Dugdale, Paul Durcan, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Lorna Goodison, Thomas Gray, Matthew Hollis, Jackie Kay, Faith Lawrence, John McCrae, Derek Mahon, Sue Millard, Adrian Mitchell, Peter Porter, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Michael Rosen, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Penelope Shuttle, Edna St Vincent Millay, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain and Anna Wigley.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 40

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-06-2018

How many ways are there to say “I love you”? According to poetry there are many – with room for humour, longing, lust, tenderness and a healthy dose of self-mockery. These fourteen poems are not about love but declare it with an immediacy that’s captivating and irresistible. Longing may be expressed using all sorts of images – there’s even a riff on a famous Shakespeare sonnet where we find ourselves in outer space – but at the heart of all the poems is love and the urgent need to proclaim it: “I love your eyes when the lovelight lies Lit with a passionate fire.” from ‘I Love You’ by Ella Wheeler Wilcox. This is an anthology that says “I love you” with a freshness and directness that’s guaranteed to stir even the stoniest of hearts. Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Katharine Goda, Nathalie Handal, Christopher Marlowe, Mary Mulholland, James Nash, Ogden Nash, Abigail Parry, Rachel Plummer, William Shakespeare, Penny Sharman, Dominic Weston and Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Bind: paperback

Pages: 24

Dimensions: 137 x 210 mm

Publication Date: 01-12-2022