13/05/2024
Myra Schneider’s compassion for the natural world and the thrill she gets from immersing herself in nature shine through in this brand new collection from Poetry Space. Schneider recognises the earth as a life giving force that drives her creativity, and she honours its resilience.
Susan Jane Sims, publisher
Centred in a homely urban environment, the poet explores the green world with all means available to her: she goes into gardens and parks and makes creative use of memory, imagination, and research. Painting and music, evoked and transposed in these poems, add different kinds of vividness. Individual lyrics give way to sustained sequences. The mysticism and practical tenacity of Hildegard of Bingen are enthrallingly recreated, the controlled fury of Artemesia Gentileschi is channelled so forcefully it scorches the pages, and the sublimity of Hokusai’s Mount Fuji leaves us on a higher plane . ~ John Freeman
A timely collection from one of our most creatively energetic and generous-spirited poets. In Believing in the Planet, Myra Schneider engages unflinchingly with the most urgent crisis of our age while attending, with unashamed passion, to all the wonders “we’re on the brink of losing”, from humble dandelions and woolly bats to the coral reef and the rainforest. She puts our planet-wounding species firmly in its place but knows that celebration is the best medium for militancy, and these exuberant poems are a testament to nature’s “determination to survive” and to the transformative powers of the poet’s imagination, where a hare is followed effortlessly on its journey to the hills, the wildlife of Ghana wreaks glorious havoc in the heart of the city and the primeval past can be summoned in a heartbeat… ~ Ruth Sharman
Believing in the Planet
