Candlestick Press

11/06/2025

The results are in! Congratulations to all the winning and shortlisted poets in our Christmas Tree competition:

Our latest competition updates and previous results.

26/05/2025

We love herbs for their fragrance and for their taste. They can be food or medicine or perfume. In these beguiling poems, it seems that herbs have other powers too; they can remind us of the past and they can make us think of love – sometimes both at the same time:

“For the cold will come, though you turn to me soon,
Your eyes going serious green from hazel,
Your quick hand on my face the scent of basil.”

from ‘Basil’ by Gibbons Ruark

Elsewhere we encounter mint and basil growing by a roadside in the Mediterranean, garden marjoram covered in bees and the headiness of wild garlic in an English woodland. Wherever they grow, herbs seem to stop us in our tracks, asking us to bend to pick a stem or simply to rub their scent onto our fingers.

Perhaps this is what herbs are for: to make time stand still as we pause for a moment to wonder at their wild beauty.

Poems by Maggie Anderson, Sujata Bhatt, Jane Burn, Jim Daniels, Isobel Dixon, John Fuller, Lyn Lifshin, Alfred Noyes, Gibbons Ruark and Robert Seatter.

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows.

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-herbs/

16/05/2025

05/05/2025

TEN POEMS ABOUT VEGETABLES

We’ve all heard the phrase “eat your greens”, but vegetables come in countless other colours that are every bit as nutritious and delicious as the green ones.

This selection captures the many glories of the vegetable kingdom, finding delight in planting, tending and digging them up, as well as in cooking and eating them. Anyone who has an allotment or vegetable patch (or just a tub by the back door) will know there’s nothing quite like a home-grown potato or tomato.

From skinny beans to curvaceous aubergines, the poems explore the almost-human shapes and textures of vegetables, which appeal to the senses in so many different ways:

“It’s the perfect vegetable,
palette-green, bottle-glass-glossy,
three dimensional, curvy
on top, firm-limbed but friable.”

from ‘Broccoli’ by Siriol Troup

This irresistible anthology creates a vividly earthy world, full of charm and wit.

Poems by Alison Brackenbury, Miriam Darlington, Jen Hadfield, Ted Kooser, Michael Laskey, Thomas Lux, Natasha Rao, Sumana Roy, Siriol Troup and Steve Waling.

Cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows.

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-vegetables/

02/05/2025

Poems straight from the garden!

A new trio of titles for the growing season, bursting with earthly delights - from buttery homegrown potatoes to the scent of basil in high summer:

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-vegetables/

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-herbs/

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-weeds/

29/04/2025

Last call for this lovely event tomorrow evening - it’s free but you need to register:

Ten Poems for WellbeingONLINE ZOOM LAUNCH EVENTincluding open mic Wednesday 30th April at 7pm - 8.15pm BST Join us at an online...

18/04/2025

Poetry | Ten poems for Wellbeing, selected and introduced by Vanessa Lampert with cover illustration by Sara Boccaccini Meadows. A lovely selection of poems to help us pay attention to mind, body and spirit in the present moment. Even though this selection spans 3 centuries, common themes emerge such as friendship, family and the natural world. In "Yoga" by Laurie Bolger, team yoga poses are a source of laughter and reflection, and ultimately great wellbeing.

These little books come with a matching bookmark, and an envelope so they can be given instead of a card. A perfect way to celebrate any occasion, whole giving the gift of poetry.

It's all about Stories ~ promoting the power of poetry.

Published by Candlestick Press Find out more here - https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-for-wellbeing/

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