The January poem in our Almanac is by Jane Simmons and conjures a freezing day when “the sky is missing” and the moon “a pearl in the stern eye of winter”. We enter the year at the darkest time before travelling onwards into the contrasting beauties of spring, summer and autumn.

Each of the twelve poems paints a vivid picture, whether of a red maple leaf ready to open in May or a late harvest in Scotland in September:

“Rooks go clattering over the sycamores
whose shadows yawn after them, down to the river.
Uncut wheat staggers under its own weight.”

from ‘September’ by Dorothy Lawrenson

The poems remind us to take stock of the passing year as it unfolds. What better way to welcome the first day of a new month than by reading a beautiful poem and reflecting on the years gone by and the one to come?