Candlestick Press

08/06/2024

This time next week! Dust off your feathers and get ready to strut 😊

Saturday 15th June 7pm

On Father’s Day Eve - or Ostriches Day as we now prefer to call it - the wonderful Jonathan Edwards will be joining the equally wonderful Jeanette Burton and a host of talented open mic poets to celebrate the launch of Jeanette’s pamphlet and dads everywhere.

Our open micers:

Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana, Carole Bromley, Emma Woodhouse, Giles Watson, Jenny McRobert, John Williams, Kathy Pimlott, Kay Medway, Linda Marshall, Liz Kendall, Maggie Mackay, Marg Roberts, Penny Sharman, Pratibha Castle, Sue Wallace-Shaddad, Zoe Green.

It’s free to attend but you need to register to receive the zoom link - more details here:

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/events/

Don’t miss it - it’s going to be fantastic!

08/06/2024

I've been sent | Ostriches, Ten poems about my Dad by Jeanette Burton. Poet Jeanette Burton takes us on a "lively journey to meet her dad; a man whose passions range from DIY to Only Fools and Horses". For the author, in the end it all comes back to one phrase "There you go kiddo, you can't win 'em all.". The title poem, "Ostriches " is a reminiscene of driving lessons long ago, and car journeys before sat navs and mobile phones, and not missing all the amazing things that whizz past the car windows. I think my favourite is "If you have a treasured possession that's seen better days...", and imagining of sending Dad in to BBC's Repair Shop. A perfect gift for Dads.

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. This one is a slight detour from the usual compilation of poems by various poets, and gives one poet her own book.

Part of my year of promoting the power of poetry.

Published by Candlestick Press Find out more here - https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ostriches-ten-poems-about-my-dad/

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04/06/2024

There’s still a few slots left for the open mic!

Yes indeed - send us your dad (or ostrich!) poems for the open mic by Friday please 😊 we’d love to have you with us! Jeanette Burton AND Jonathan Edwards will be reading.

Ostriches: Ten Poems about My Dad by Jeanette Burton 7pm on Saturday 15th June 2024 Join Candlestick Press for an online event ...

04/06/2024

Meadows, holidays… and cows. What could be more summery and enticing? Our new trio of titles for June will both entertain and delight:

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/wish-you-were-here-fourteen-poems-about-holidays/

https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/the-summer-meadow-forty-acres-of-shared-earth/

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

26/05/2024

LAUNCH EVENT WITH OPEN MIC

SATURDAY 15TH JUNE 2024
7 PM - 8:15 PM BST

ONLINE
ZOOM
FREE EVENT

Join us for an online event to celebrate Father’s Day and the publication of our latest title: a selection of affectionate and uplifting new poems written specially for us by the wonderful Jeanette Burton.

Jeanette will read from the pamphlet and there’ll be a special guest appearance by Jonathan Edwards (author of My Family and Other Superheroes). There’ll also be an open mic with poems about dads, and hopefully the odd ostrich too!

If you’d like to take part in the open mic please email your dad or ostrich poem to [email protected] and [email protected] and make sure you put OSTRICHES OPEN MIC in the subject line. We’ll be in touch to let you know if your poem has been chosen.

The event is free to attend but please secure your tickets via Ticket Tailor to receive the event zoom link. We look forward to having you with us!

Ostriches: Ten Poems about My Dad by Jeanette Burton 7pm on Saturday 15th June 2024 Join Candlestick Press for an online event ...

17/05/2024

I've been sent | Ten poems about Butterflies. It's the perfect weekend to be reading a book about butterflies. And we live in Norfolk, one of the only places to find the Swallowtail. They've been elusive so far, but we've spotted cabbage white, speckled wood, common blue, brimstone, red admiral, peacock and painted lady.

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. Poems of "vividness and frailty" fill the pages of this little pamphlet. We hear from poets through the years including Emily Dickinson, Matthew Hollis, Grace Nichols and John Kinsella, about the beauty, rarity, acrobatics and wonder of butterflies. My favourite though has to be Matthew Hollis's ode to the Swallowtail at Barton Turf.

Part of my year of promoting the power of poetry.

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

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17/05/2024

Big congratulations to Jeanette Burton 😊It’s publication day for Ostriches, her brilliant pamphlet of dad poems - now available to order, just in time for Father’s Day

In this uplifting sequence, poet Jeanette Burton takes us on a lively journey to meet her dad: a man whose passions range from DIY to Only Fools and Horses. There are mem...

04/05/2024

LAUNCH EVENT WITH OPEN MIC

SATURDAY 18TH MAY 2024
12 NOON - 1:15 PM BST
7:00 PM - 8:15 PM WA

ONLINE
ZOOM
FREE EVENT

Ten Poems about Butterflies

Join us for an online event to celebrate the publication of our beautiful new title Ten Poems about Butterflies, edited by poet and butterfly enthusiast Giles Watson.

There’ll be guest readings by contributing poets in the UK and Australia, including Giles Watson and Nandi Chinna. There’ll also be an international open mic where you can expect to encounter the glorious vividness of butterflies from all over the world.

The event is free to attend but please secure your tickets by booking and receive the event zoom link. We look forward to having you with us!

Our upcoming launches and readings.

30/04/2024

We’re tickled pink to preview the arrival of Jeanette Burton’s fabulous debut pamphlet Ostriches: Ten Poems about My Dad on 17th May – more details here https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ostriches-ten-poems-about-my-dad/ and watch this space for launch info coming soon!

In this uplifting sequence, poet Jeanette Burton takes us on a lively journey to meet her dad: a man whose passions range from DIY to Only Fools and Horses. There are mem...

22/04/2024

NEW! TEN POEMS ABOUT BUTTERFLIES

SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY GILES WATSON

Butterflies must be the most beautiful of all insects. They are with us while the warm weather lasts, and seeing a Brimstone in a garden early in the year is one of the most delightful heralds of spring’s arrival.

The vividness and frailty of butterflies as they flicker across our summer meadows are why they seem to embody a sense of transience – and may also be why they are so popular with poets. For Judith Wright a butterfly’s short life is all about love:

“Lifted by air and dream
they rose and circled into heaven’s slipstream
to seek each other over fields of blue.”

from ‘Wings’ by Judith Wright

This glorious selection celebrates butterflies from all over the world – from a Swallowtail in the English Fens to a Spotted Jezebel in Australia – and reminds us to look closely at their dazzling beauty while we can.

Poems by Nandi Chinna, John Clare, WH Davies, Emily Dickinson, Robert Graves, Matthew Hollis, John Kinsella, Grace Nichols, Giles Watson and Judith Wright.

Cover illustration by Carry Akroyd.

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

12/04/2024

In the week that sees the Seren launch of Kathryn Bevis’s amazing collection The Butterfly House https://www.serenbooks.com/book/the-butterfly-house/ it seems entirely appropriate to be posting this about the launch of our next new pamphlet, Ten Poems about Butterflies https://www.candlestickpress.co.uk/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-butterflies/

Would you like to read a butterfly poem of your own at this special joint UK and Australia event? If so, please email it to us - details below:

28/03/2024

Picnic
By Owen Sutcliffe

You came, and it seemed the field sang.
I know how busy your weeks have become. I hesitated to ask. But I crossed my toes and packed the fizzy ginger and bad crisps into a bag anyway.
We always sit in the same spot. I saw you coming. Up and through the grasses.
It seemed my difficulties fell behind you like skittles. I poured fizz into a paper cup and ate something of vague potato. In some ways, this was enough. I no longer needed the advice. You came.
It seemed the field sang.

One of the winning entries in our Little Stories of Kindness micro-fiction competition as part of our project, kindly supported by Candlestick Press

28/03/2024

The Gift of Strangers
By Euan Reilly

The clamour was deafening. Nails, shrapnel, and ball bearings clanged inside her head. Thoughts
crackled like tinfoil crunched between teeth. You’re not enough. I never wanted you. Why are you here.
Overcome with dizziness, the world fell away. The darkness her shield.
A sliver of light remained and through it silhouettes emerged.
With a blink, a face crystalised - a young woman knelt over her and smiled. Crouching nearby, an
older man talked calmly into a phone. Warmth enveloped her as someone placed a jacket over her shoulders.
The woman touched her arm “It’s okay love, help is coming”.

One of the winning entries in our Little Stories of Kindness micro-fiction competition as part of our project, kindly supported by Candlestick Press

28/03/2024

Hold onto your Easter bonnets! Something beautiful and crafty to watch over on our blog, while you’re tucking into those eggs:

What better time to highlight our recent title Ten Poems about Hats which contains headgear galore – everything from t...

20/03/2024

It's International Happiness day! And we invite you to come to to browse our new books and have a chat with us. Perhaps you will find this new Candlestick Press collection of Happiness .

Set up by the United Nations as a day to celebrate the things that make people all over the world happy, it is also a time when the organisation calls for governments around the world to support people so that they can feel safe, secure and happy. In 2015 the UN launched 17 sustainable development goals for world leaders around things like efforts to reduce poverty and inequality and protect the planet.

Ledbury Town Council Ledbury Traders Arts Council England

20/03/2024

Happy ! With smiles, gratitude and love from Team Candlestick 😊

Ten Poems of Happiness

Happiness: the mid-point, perhaps, between contentment and joy. We all hope for it, but we all also have times when it seems far away. Sometimes, we even fail to notice when it’s there.

These poems don’t celebrate rapture or feverish delight. Mostly, they capture moments of what Emily Dickinson calls “casual simplicity” – seeing a dragonfly land on a lake or giggling irreverently during a yoga class. Happiness, they seem to say, is far less complicated than we sometimes imagine:

“It comes to the lover, to the dog chewing
a sock, to the pusher, to the basketmaker,
and to the clerk stacking cans of carrots
in the night.”

from ‘Happiness’ by Jane Kenyon

This delightful and thoughtful selection is sure to lift the spirits and gladden the heart.

Deborah Alma is a poet and poetry tutor, also known as the Emergency Poet offering the world’s first mobile poetry first aid service. She also runs the Poetry Pharmacy in Shropshire.

Poems by Deborah Alma, Meg Cox, Emily Dickinson, Jonathan Edwards, Tony Hoagland, Jane Kenyon, Bryony Littlefair, Naomi Shihab Nye, RS Thomas and James Wright.

Cover illustration by Victoria McGrane.

19/03/2024

I've been sent | Ten poems about Cities selected and introduced by Jessica Mookherjee. A mini-anthology taking us on a city break, to discover hustle and bustle, light and dark, dreams and awakenings, noise and peace.

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.

Part of my year of promoting the power, positivity and possibilities of poetry.

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

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16/03/2024

Nearly all of us have an ‘auntie’ or ‘aunty’ – even if the person in question isn’t actually a relative.

In these entertaining and touching poems we meet story-telling aunts and aunts who spin their own yarn, aunts who send gifts from afar and an aunt with a crew cut who knows far more about love than could ever be imagined. The poems demonstrate that the essence of being an aunt is to always be there when needed:

“When your heart breaks, as hearts sometimes do,
Aunt Constance at Looe
will feed it on Cornish cream and philosophy,
soothe it with strawberries for tea;”

from ‘Aunts’ by Virginia Graham

The poems – tender and wry by turn – are a reminder that aunts in all their various guises are to be treasured and celebrated.

Poems by Moniza Alvi, Martin Armstrong, Charles Causley, Virginia Graham, Langston Hughes, Norman MacCaig, John McCullough, Stevie Smith, Joyce Sutphen and Christine Webb.

Cover illustration by Hilke MacIntyre.

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

29/02/2024

Welcoming this wonderful new title into the world today! Poems alive with urban buzz and bustle, edited by Jessica Mookherjee and cover illustration by Clare Curtis.

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

Poems by Suzannah Evans, Andrew Fusek-Peters, Kapka Kassabova, Carola Luther, John McCullough, Jessica Mookherjee, Meryl Pugh, Roger Robinson, James Tate and Sara Teasdale.

18/02/2024

One week to go! Please come if you can - it’s going to be great: https://www.gigantic.com/nottingham-central-library-tickets/nottingham-nottingham-central-library/2024-01-24-00-00?

Buy tickets and see event information for Candlestick Press launch: Ten Poems about Libraries.

10/02/2024

I've been sent | Ten Poems about Libraries selected and introduced by Lorraine Mariner. Libraries are treasured places. We may remember visiting a local library in childhood to explore an early delight in reading. Or perhaps we have come to value them in later life, as a calm sanctuary where we can daydream among beloved books. A library is also a portal into countless worlds of knowledge, experience and adventure - this from the Candlestick Press website - because I couldn't have written a better paragraph about libraries. I remember the smell of the library in our home town when I was growing up, and exactly where the books were that I browsed and borrowed. This is a lovely collection of poems about libraries and librarians, shelves and stairs, books and borrowing.

Libraries are indeed treasures and treasured places, where new generations will learn to love stories, and their carers will love sharing stories with them, and where anyone, regardless of circumstances, can take books home to read and share. Let's work together to ensure our libraries are safe for the future.

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

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10/02/2024