A poem or piece of prose to start or end each day. These books are perfect to keep by your bedside, on the kitchen table or next to your favourite armchair.
Forthcoming – A Love Poem for Every Day autumn 2024.
A Happy Poem to End Every Day.
This was a joy to compile. Lodged in the airy world of the imagination, happiness is almost impossible to pin down in a hard and fast definition but I had a great time trying. While I was compiling the anthology an article appeared in a newspaper giving a complicated scientific formula for happiness. Learned neuroscientists had worked out that in order to be happy one should lower one’s expectations, to avoid disappointment, but not lower them so much that one became miserable. It is clearly a delicate balance. The other discovery they made is that happiness doesn’t last long; it seems our brains adjust to a happy situation very quickly so we are ready to make the next move in life. Perhaps the best policy is to follow Iris Murdoch’s advice and aim for a life with ‘continuous small treats’. A daily poem (with one or two pieces of prose) will, I hope, bring readers of this collection continuous small slivers of happiness.
2022: Batsford.
Nature Writing for Every Day of the Year.
I had compiled two collections of nature poetry and, whilst doing so, I came to realise that many of the very best nature writers never wrote poetry and that many of the most moving descriptions of the natural world appear as prose rather than verse. This anthology dips its toe into fact and fiction, letters and diaries, practical field guides and wild imaginings. Following the seasons, day by day, there are identification notes and musings from bygone times, magical forests and many timely warnings, throughout the ages, of the perils of mistreating nature and taking her riches for granted. Like my other anthologies, this is not intended to be a practical manual but I have included entries from field guides where the description is particularly beautiful, interesting or humorous. I have also included the opinions of witches, griffins and a phoenix and amongst these pieces you will also find bears (grizzly and duffle-coated), cats, dogs and talking ravens.
2021: Batsford
A Nature Poems for Every Night of the Year.
It may seem obvious, but everything looks different at night. Shadows take on a deeper hue and colours appear indistinct. Shapes that are harmless in daylight are transformed in the dark of night, becoming menacing or beguiling. This is the realm of the nightingale and the owl, the moon and the stars. I avoided the darkest poems but, in more ways than the obvious, the night is darker than the day. Our fears come to the surface and we cannot see what may be lurking beyond the patches of light in the deep shadows. Here you will find some poems of uncertainty, loss, disquiet and enchantment. Midnight, for many poets, is a crucial turning point, more than simply a change of date: ‘’Tis the hour of endings, ended, / Of beginnings, unbegun.’ (Laurence Binyon). With this in mind, some poems in this collection look forward to the dawn whilst others look back to nature in the daylight hours.
2020: Batsford
Friends: A Poem for Every Day of the Year.
The brief was that the poems had to be about friendship, rather than love, which was far harder than I had expected. Most poets are obsessed with love (or the lack of it); a seemingly innocent verse would end up with the poet looking at his muse lying naked in bed or the charming subject of the poem would suddenly open the buttons of her blouse to reveal……well, you can imagine. Fairly soon I realised that the people we love should, ideally, also be friends, which widened the scope. It was a lovely anthology to compile. I deliberately chose poems that were uplifting and spent my days reading about life-long friendships, faithfulness and fun. I hope the collection will do the same for readers.
2019: Batsford.
A Nature Poem for Every Day of the Year.
If one wants to plough a field one would read an agricultural manual. The point of the poetry here is to give an imaginative view of nature: owls marry pussy cats, carved leopards leap into life and snow is always deep and crisp. Even though I know that tigers do not roam our fields, you are unlikely to see a phoenix and crocodiles do not inhabit our rivers I have included them. Opinion is divided regarding enchanted woods and the Loch Ness Monster but these too have earned a place in this anthology. Geography is not strictly accurate either; Rachel Lyman Field’s geese are more likely to be flying towards Britain rather than away from it. The point of these poems is that one can imagine.
2018: Batsford.