The moment of pulling a suitcase or rucksack down from a cupboard or out from under the bed always carries a particular kind of excitement. It’s as if going away promises a new life – even though it’s only for a week or two. What counts is the thrill of departure, whether by car, train or plane:

“I love the hour before takeoff, that stretch of no time, no home but the gray vinyl seats linked like unfolding paper dolls.”
from ‘Vacation’ by Rita Dove
These poems celebrate all sorts of holidays – from a motel in Florida which holds a lifetime of childhood memories to a first experience of Greece at eighteen, complete with sunburn, flip-flops and retsina. We meet dolphins and feral cats, a tea house high in the mountains and an estuary walk with daughters in Wales.
The selection brims with nostalgia and affectionate humour – and then there’s the simple bliss of a pink sunset on a beach.
Poems by Wendell Berry, Richard Blanco, Carole Bromley, Jeanette Burton, Rita Dove, LB Jørgensen, Beth McDonough,
Claire Lynn, Stephen Payne, Pete Taylor, Steve Waling,
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Polly Walshe and
Sarah Ziman.