Patricia M Osborne

I’m delighted to welcome fellow Hedgehog Poetry Press, poet, Lesley Curwen, to Patricia’s Pen for the first time. Lesley shares a blog about inspiration for her poetry, including her latest release, Rescue Lines. Without further ado, it’s over to Lesley.

Inspiration

Lesley Curwen

I often wake up at 4am with a poem burning in my mind. I stab out the first ideas into the notes folder on my phone, go back to sleep and sometimes wake again with a new line or a different idea and blearily edit on the phone. Later that day, or sometimes that week, I transcribe the poem on to the laptop, editing it again as I go.

It seems like the ideas form from my subconscious as I sleep. They don’t come from dreams, as such. I imagine my mind as a cup foaming over with words.

These ideas will be subjects that I have thought of before, but they crystallise into poems in my sleep, usually with a first line, first stanza and a rough idea of where they will go, although often the ending changes radically within the revision process.

To order a copy of Sticky with Miles, send a DM to Lesley via Twitter (X) or go to Dreich HERE

Some of the proto-poems come from musings about consumerism and globalisation, about our multiplicity of choice, and the heartbreaking amount of waste we live with. I spent many years as a business correspondent for the BBC, travelling to many places to report on the global economy. I saw garment factories in China, gas pipelines in Siberia and palm-oil plantations in Ghana, and I have understood the bitter bargain humanity makes between prosperity and environmental damage. These days, I try to use my poetry brain to tell this story. Some of these poems appear in my eco-chapbook from Dreich, Sticky with Miles.

To order a signed copy of Rescue Lines DM Lesley on Twitter (X) or visit The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

Other proto-poems are born out of anger, on behalf of loved ones and others, who suffered as a result of forced adoption and coercive control. I have written about this in my Hedgehog Press pamphlet Rescue Lines, about the difficulties of escape and recovery. Sometimes I use extended metaphors to say the unsayable, and sometimes the raw truth emerges. I admire Pascale Petit perhaps more than any other poet, and I wish I could use animal metaphors as skilfully as she does. I am trying to learn how.

One thing that creeps, or oozes into most of my poems is – the sea. As a sailor and a year-round sea swimmer, I feel its presence everywhere, its comfort and its danger. Some poems have come to me when swimming. I once interviewed a sea-obsessed artist who drew ocean waves on waterproof paper while hanging IN the ocean! I haven’t tried writing in the wet stuff yet, but perhaps I should give it a go.   

About Lesley Curwen

Lesley Curwen is a poet, broadcaster and sailor who lives in Plymouth. She writes about loss and rescue, and about our damaged marine environment. 

She won the Molecules Unlimited Poetry Prize and was a finalist in the Wales Poetry Award. She has been nominated for Best of the Net and a Pushcart Prize. Her pamphlet ‘Rescue Lines’ is published by Hedgehog Poetry Press and her eco-chapbook ‘Sticky with Miles’ is published by Dreich.   Nine Pens published ’Invisible Continents’, a collaborative pamphlet from Lesley, Jane R Rogers and Tahmina Maula.

Other poems have been published by Bad Lilies, East Ridge Review, Black Bough, Broken Sleep, Atrium, Spelt, The Alchemy Spoon and  Ice Floe Press.

Links

Website

Twitter (X)

Instagram

I’m delighted and excited to share that I’ve a new book being released on 25th September 2024. The Woodhaerst Triangle is a 1970s love story wrapped up in family drama and the first book in a brand new trilogy. I can’t wait to hear what my readers think of it. I’m hoping you’ll all love getting to know Rachel and Peggy as much as Grace, George, and Elizabeth, in House of Grace,and Françoise and Tilly in The Oath.
The Woodhaerst trilogy is told through two first person narrators. Rachel and Peggy.

Rachel, a carefree, rebellious teenager – Peggy, a happily married woman with a family.

Preorder Available HERE

And here’s the prologue to add as a further teaser.

The Woodhaerst Triangle

Patricia M Osborne

 Prologue

June, 1953

A high-pitched cry fills the small room as the infant enters the world.

             ‘Is it all right? What did I have?’ The girl tries to sit up. Beads of sweat run across her forehead. Her white linen gown is bloodstained.

            ‘No concern of yours, lass. Lie back and let me finish cleaning you up.’ The buxom nurse pats the girl down below with a threadbare towel.

It shouldn’t be like this. She should’ve been allowed to have the infant at home, in her own surroundings. Not in this dingy room with an old woman telling her she has no right to know anything. It wasn’t fair. ‘But the baby’s mine. Please, what did I have? Please let me hold it.’

            ‘Take the bairn away’– the nurse waves her large hands at the female attendant – ‘take her. Quickly.’ 

            The skinny attendant wraps the baby in white muslin showing only a mass of dark hair.

            ‘A girl. I have a daughter. Please don’t take her away. Please. Let me see.’ The girl lies back powerless, too tired to even barely move.

            Ignoring the young mother, the attendant leaves the room with the infant in her arms. As she opens the door shrieks from another teen in labour echo along the corridor. The heavy door slams shut silencing the screams.  

            The girl sobs. ‘Please.’          

            ‘Forget her. She’s not yours.’ The nurse dips a flannel into a fresh bowl of lukewarm water, wrings it out and washes the sixteen-year-old’s face. ‘You’re a lucky lass. Normal delivery and no stitches. When the time’s right, and you have a husband, you can have more bairns. Forget this ever happened. Go home and continue your life.’

Chapter 1 opens with Rachel – November 1971.

Preorder on Kindle

The Woodhaerst Triangle will be released on 25th September 2024 in both paperback and Kindle format. It is available to preorder now on Kindle. Book 2, The Woodhaerst Reunion will be published late November/early December 2024, and the final book in the trilogy, The Woodhaerst Women will be published Mar/April 2025.

Watch this space for cover reveal for Book 2.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank my followers, readers, family, and friends, for their constant support in both my books and blog.

Please join me in congratulating poet, Kelly Davis, on the launch of her new poetry collection, The Lost Art of Ironing, published by the awesome The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

In The Lost Art of Ironing, the metaphorical iron smooths out life’s creases as well as crumpled clothes, with poems about women as lovers, wives, mothers, muses, and editors and curators of their own lives. There are meditations on Emily Dickinson, Anne Sexton, George Sand and Lisa Gherardini (better known as ‘the Mona Lisa’). And the collection ends with five modern versions of Shakespeare’s best-loved sonnets, looking at time, love and mortality in the digital age. These poems sparkle with wit and wisdom and shed new light on the way women’s lives have changed – and not changed.

What others say

“Here is a true poet. No game playing, no showing off, no trying to impress. These poems go straight to the heart of what it means to be alive in the day-to-day world most of us occupy. I’m amazed this is her first collection.” Brian Patten

“A sensitive and assured collection. Kelly Davis reflects on many aspects of her life and family history in tones that range from sorrow through wistfulness to wry humour. Her poems are both wise and probing…. This is a book to treasure and return to; each re-reading will yield new enjoyment.” Lucy Newlyn

“This collection offers the accumulated riches of a life well lived. ‘To My Hands’ provides an autobiographical framework; other poems sketch family history, sometimes tragic. But the heart of this book is celebration. ‘The Big Room’ is worthy of a place where jigs were danced and Christmases were celebrated… The celebration extends to Maryport where this house is located, which has seen better days but has ‘the best bloody sunsets in England.’  Yea! There is so much to enjoy here.” John Freeman

Available direct from the author, at £10 (incl. p&p) or £11 for a signed copy

Available from the publisher after 19^th August 2024

Online Launch Event

Kelly will be reading from her new collection at an online launch with Magaret Royall (Toccata and Fugue with Harp) and Kerry Darbishire (River Talk) on Wednesday 4^th September, 7pm, to celebrate the publication of their collections by Hedgehog Poetry Press in August. The event will be compered by Lucy Heuschen.

Please contact Margaret Royall via email at margaretroyall@icloud.com to register for the Zoom link.

About Kelly Davis

Photography taken by Clare Park

Kelly Davis lives in Maryport, on the West Cumbrian coast, and works as a freelance editor. Her poetry has been widely anthologised and published in magazines such as Mslexia, Magma, London Grip and Shooter. In 2021 she came second in the Borderlines Poetry Competition and was longlisted for the Erbacce Press Poetry Competition. She has twice been shortlisted for the Aesthetica Creative Writing Award and she appears in the Best New British and Irish Poets 2019–2021 anthology (Black Spring Press). In 2021, she collaborated with Kerry Darbishire on their poetry pamphlet Glory Days (Hen Run).

Links

Website

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter (X)

Please welcome Michelle Kidd, a talented author from across the pond, to Patricia’s Pen. Michelle is celebrating her brand new release, Finding Frankie, and shares her writing journey below.

From Crayons to Kindle: My Journey to Finding Frankie

Michelle Kidd

Thank you, Tricia. I’m so honored to share my writing journey and latest book, Finding Frankie, with your readers on Patricia’s Pen.

I’ve always loved books. My love affair with them began at a young age when I penned my first one with crayons and tied it with hair ribbons. There weren’t many words, mostly pictures, but I had a dream. Later, when I opened Charlotte’s Web and E.B. White transported me into the Arable’s kitchen, I was hooked. I loved stories.

As so often happens, life’s hurdles can challenge us, but I was given a unique opportunity in 2016 through Amazon’s Kindle Scout Program. This innovative experiment, launched by Amazon for reader-driven stories, featured books in a thirty-day campaign. Readers had the chance to read snippets and vote for the books they most wanted to see published. At the end of the campaign, Amazon reviewed the books for potential publishing contracts, with an acceptance rate of only 5%. My first book, Timeless Moments, was fortunate enough to be selected, and from there, my book took off. To date, my debut novel has sold over 48,000 copies and has over 4,200 ratings in the United States market.

I’d like to say that set me on an accelerated path, but the publishing road is not always paved and seldom straight. After the first book was so well received, I set out to write my second book. My agent shopped it around for about a year with great feedback before we turned our attention to my third book. This one was also met with great feedback, but we were told “Westerns” are a hard sell these days. The market isn’t right. Despite Finding Frankie being Southern fiction and set in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, it had that Western feel with outlaws, redemption, and revenge. Armed with all the positive feedback from publishers, I decided to take matters into my own hands. I loved the characters and felt they had a right to be seen and heard. I plunged into the world of independent publishing for this series. It’s been quite a learning experience but also fun. I designed everything from the cover to the format and have enjoyed the process. I guess one could say I’ve been creating books my entire life.

There’s something magical about opening a book and being transported to a new and exciting place. I hope readers check out my stories and characters for themselves.

About Michelle Kidd

Michelle lives with her husband of over 30 years, two gifted sons on the autism spectrum, and two adorable fur babies. Although she was sidetracked by work, motherhood, and homeschooling, writing remained her true calling. Nowadays, she delights her family with impromptu songs and creates vivid landscapes with her words. Her deep affection for Virginia fuels her passion for crafting historical sagas that resonate with readers. She believes faith should be at the heart of every story and continues looking for unique stories to transport her readers.

Links

BUY

BUY

Twitter (X)

Facebook

Website

Amazon Author Page

Please join me in congratulating poet, Margaret Royall on the launch of her new poetry collection, Toccata and Fugue and Harp published by the awesome The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

Nature versus Nurture?

Reflections on growing up in the post war era, viewed through a lens of music and colour.

What others say

“How to compose a life in a single collection. Here, in the shadow of childhood strings, the walls hum with myth, magic, post-war tremors and religious oppression. Margaret’s ghost of youth, in search of escape, stomps its feet, speaks of the need to repress, to rage and most of all, to revolt. These are songs of the confessional, the confrontational, poems examining the child caught under the thumb, learning what to do with freedom when it’s found and later, as adult, learning about loss and the cost of scars. This is a bitter sweet cacophony that swings and sways from sermons to seductions, a Lincolnshire lass looking from the vase of yesterday’s rose, time travelling on the flap of a butterfly’s wing – fragile, frightening, finite, memories unspooling between Rachmaninoff and Creedence Clearwater Revival. Scores of truths, tastes and touches, notes that times has taken, tamed, and sometimes turned from hurt to a semblance of halcyon.” Damien B Donnelly, Poet & Editor

“I was delighted to delve into Toccata and Fugue which lives up to the title with its musical tone throughout. Margaret Royall skilfully wraps her memories in gorgeous imagery and sound echoes. Precious Jewellery, inspired by the colour amber and Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata, held my immediate attention with its ingenious experimental form. Royall takes the reader back to her childhood and beyond. The collection is split into two parts making it easy to dip in and out of at any one time. Highly recommend this for any poetry lover’s bookshelf.” Patricia M Osborne, Poet & Novelist

“In Toccata and Fugue, Margaret Royall presents an inspiring collection of poetry that impressively describes the marvels and challenges of a fulfilled life in music and colours. These lovely poems are Margaret’s heartfelt invitation to join her on her exciting journey from a postwar childhood shaped by religion to the fascinating charisma in the third age. Toccata and Fugue deserves a place on everyone’s nightstand.” Dr Antje Bothin (PhD MSc), Writer & Poet

“Toccata and Fugue is a memoir told through a series of anecdotes, in which we as readers are allowed the freedom to fill in the spaces. In these poems Margaret Royall takes us vividly back in time. She shows us scenes from her childhood and youth, along with a few from later years, giving us glimpses not just of what she sees and remembers of what happened then, but also hints of how past events and relationships may have influenced who the poet later became and the choices she made. Dripping on toast, beach-side holidays, the scent of Pears soap and Devon Violets perfume, alongside images of caring, anxious, god-fearing parents trying to navigate a complex, changing world themselves, conjure up a 1950s childhood and beyond. Composed with the energy and humour of toccata and the interwoven themes of fugue, this collection offers a rewarding poetic insight into a life that seems both familiar and unfamiliar in the present day – and perhaps turned out quite differently than it once seemed it might.” Phil Vernon, Poet & Author

BUY

About Margaret Royall

Margaret has six books of poetry. She has won or been shortlisted in various competitions and widely published. She was recently chosen as an Erbacce Press featured poet. She has three books forthcoming in 2024 with Hedgehog Press, Dreich and Impspired.

Links

Twitter (X)

Instagram

Website

Please join me in congratulating Desmond Childs on the launch of her latest poetry collection The Vagaries of the Heart published by The Hedgehog Poetry Press

The Vagaries of the Heart is the debut collection from Desmond Childs and beautifully explores Love with gentle musicality in word and cadence, exploring shade and fracture in relationship in all of its petal-scented form.

This is a delightful collection and one that you will treasure from a poet who be-guides as well as beguiles.

BUY

About Desmond Childs

Desmond was born in Birmingham in 1958 moving to Lichfield in 1959 at the age of 9 months, where he now lives with his wife and youngest daughter and their two dogs. His favourite pastimes are working in his greenhouse and garden, walking his two dogs, and reading and writing poetry. His poetry has been published in anthologies by Hedgehog poetry press, The Vagaries of the heart is his debut collection also published by Hedgehog poetry press. Desmond works for the local Authority as a garden/groundsman and is due for retirement, which he intends to spend gardening and writing poetry.

Links

Twitter

Website

I’m delighted to welcome poet, Laura Theis, to Patricia’s Pen. Laura is celebrating the anniversary of her poetry collection, A Spotter’s Guide to Invisible Things. Without further ado it’s over to Laura to tell you all about it.

Happy Book Anniversary to A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things…

Laura Theis

I always feel like publishing a book is like a little time capsule – a snapshot of the things that I was grappling with at a certain point in time.

My very first book of poems, how to extricate yourself, came out in December 2020, in the middle of a worldwide pandemic’s hard lockdown, and just days after the sudden shocking death of a dear friend.

A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things contains everything I wrote in the three years since – and one of the ‘invisible things’ referenced in the title is a hidden undercurrent of grief running below the poems, even though many of them are about a search for wonder and myth and language and imaginary scenarios like a person crashing through my skylight, a surreal ride on a night mare, or matching with the sky on a dating app…

Now, A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things is approaching its one-year publication anniversary and time is showing off its ability for strange contortions again: so much has happened in this period – from the incredibly painful to the magical.

Very recently, I read a German translation of the opening poem of this collection while fighting back tears at another dear person’s funeral. But I also read from it on a Swedish Lake with wild roaming reindeer listening in during the Alpine Fellowship symposium, or in my friend’s fairy-light-glowing forest grove of a living room in Devon, or at an International Women’s Day Celebration in Hay-on-Wye, or at a wonderful festival for translingual writers in Graz.  I am so grateful the book exists and that I still get to share these poems – connecting with readers is always what makes me the happiest. Ada Limòn, a poet I fiercely admire, once said that ‘we write with all the good ghosts in our corner’ and I am so grateful for the truth of this.

Another thing that will always be special about this book is that my dear friend and favourite fine artist Rose-Marie Caldecott has been creating work that speaks beautifully of all the things I was trying to find words for, and I love the book so much more because it has been graced with one of her astonishing paintings that show the making of invisible rooted connections, of trees reaching for each other under the surface.

There are already two new books on the horizon for next year – one of them my children’s debut. But A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things will always be incredibly special to me and I will always be grateful and excited for it to spread out its roots and wings and tendrils and find another soul with whom to connect. Maybe it will be you, reading this?

“This is a collection full of unexpected observations: slant ways of looking at the world. From the opening poem through ‘in my mother tongue the name for grand piano is wing’ to ‘ a sci-fi story about flying urn hauntings that would make an excellent Hollywood blockbuster’ the reader encounters intriguingly titled poems which demonstrate a wry humour as well as an adroit use of language. The poet deals with myth and everyday occurrences equally adeptly. Selkies, Taygete, tree surgeons, angels, bindweed and animal rescue centers are all at home in these poems. Reading this collection was an enchanting journey along an unpredictable route with a new delight on every page.”  – Susannah Hart

About Laura Theis

Laura Theis writes poetry, songs, and fiction in her second language. Her work appears in POETRY, Oxford Poetry, Magma, Rattle, Aesthetica, Mslexia, and others, and she has received the Alpine Fellowship Writing Prize, the Oxford Brookes Poetry Prize, the Poets & Players Prize, the Hammond House International Literary Award, the AM Heath Prize, the Mogford Short Story Prize, as well as a Forward Prize nomination. Her debut how to extricate yourself was an Oxford Poetry Library Book of the Month, was nominated for the Elgin Award by the SciFi&Fantasy Poetry Association and won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize. Her new collection A Spotter’s Guide To Invisible Things won the Live Canon Collection Prize and received the Arthur Welton Award from the Society of Authors. A new poetry collection from Broken Sleep Books and her children’s debut Poems From A Witch’s Pocket (Emma Press) are forthcoming in 2025.

Links

BUY

Facebook

Website

Instagram

I’m delighted to welcome back poet, Margaret Royall, to Patricia’s Pen. This time to discuss her upcoming poetry collection, Toccata and Fugue with Harp to be published by the very awesome The Hedgehog Poetry Press. Without further ado, it’s over to Margaret.

A personal perspective on my poetry collection

‘Toccata and Fugue with Harp’

Margaret Royall

Following on from the success of my memoir of childhood, The Road to Cleethorpes Pier, published May 2020 by Crumps Barn Studio, I realised I had only told a fraction of the story and had many more memories to explore. Requests came in for a part two and I put pen to paper again delving into the recesses of memory’s deeper…. and darker… vaults. This time I was determined to deal with the challenging side of childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, by exploring the age old question ‘which has the greater influence upon our development from child to man/woman, nature or nurture?’

In the  ‘Toccata’ section I write about early years. My  postwar upbringing was very different from contemporary times. It was a time of austerity, ration books, a period which saw the nation start to recover from World War 11 and saw the introduction of the NHS. At home we had none of the household appliances deemed essential today, no fridge, washing machine or TV. School and church were the dominant factors in a child’s life back then. School was a strict regime, where teachers ruled with a rod of iron and misbehaviour was swiftly dealt with by corporal punishment.

My parents were devout Methodists, very involved with our local chapel and I was there most days of the week. It was a strict regime with a lot of prohibition, including a no alcohol rule. Drink was the Devil’s elixir and to be avoided at all costs. I was encouraged to to ‘sign the pledge’ age six, vowing never to touch a drop of alcohol in my life! Yet I had no real understanding of what this meant. We were even told not to put vinegar on our chips, as this was a fermented substance too.

The Intermezzo section of the book addresses my discomfort. As I grew older I appreciated the folly of some of these rules and once I escaped to university I could choose my own path in life. I saw the bigger picture, especially in London in the swinging sixties. There I could be whoever I wanted to be, do whatever I fancied, but on visits home I found being back in a parochial setting challenging. My parents were extremely loving and had always striven to do their best for me, providing me with opportunities to pursue ballet and music classes. Yet I had felt as an only child the burden of expectation weighing heavy on my shoulders. I had to do well, be competitive, make them proud. My parents sometimes lived their lives vicariously through me and it was stressful. I often felt like an outsider looking in on life from the periphery of a circle.

The final Fugue section brings things up to date and celebrates the joys of my life now in my third age. I love my quaint cottage in a small rural Nottinghamshire village and enjoy strolling in nature. This is documented in the long walking meditation poem at the start. Since music and colour have always been dominant factors in my life, the poems in this section each have a suggestion of a piece of music and an artist’s colour to accompany them.

My final conclusion is that nature and nurture probably played equal roles in shaping the person I have become.

If you’d like to find out more about this wonderful collection, please visit Margaret’s website HERE.

About Margaret Royall

Margaret has six books of poetry. She has won or been shortlisted in various competitions and widely published. She was recently chosen as an Erbacce Press featured poet. She has three books forthcoming in 2024 with Hedgehog Press, Dreich and Impspired.

Links

Twitter

Instagram

Website

Please join me in congratulating Jen Feroze on the launch of her debut poetry collection Tiny Bright Thorns published by Nine Pens Publishing.

Jen Feroze’s debut pamphlet ‘Tiny Bright Thorns’ charts the magic and madness of early motherhood. Shot through with sea and sky, wonder and terror, these unflinching poems explore themes of love, doubt, growth, loneliness and the sudden shift of identity that comes with the birth of a child.

Tiny Bright Thorns begins rooted in the domestic, but slinks out among forests of foxes, flames a triumphant sunrise on a beach, has an argument with a Salvador Dali painting and finds whales swimming among the stars.

“Tiny Bright Thorns is a love-song to the tender, fierce and ‘tar-thick’ days and nights of early motherhood, the ‘feathered cries of the new’. Rich in startling imagery, open-hearted and often movingly truthful, these poems shine – a ‘beacon’ passed from ‘mother to mother to mother’. How I wish I had read them as a new mother myself navigating those perilous, unmoored early weeks. Jen Feroze writes with grace and humanity of the ‘herbaceous bite/ of exquisite and terrifying love’ in all its forms and the power of imagination to connect us all.” – Sarah Westcott.

About Jen Feroze

Jen Feroze lives by the sea in Essex. A former Foyle Young Poet, her work has appeared in publications including Under the Radar, Poetry Wales, Magma, iamb, Butcher’s Dog, Berlin Lit, And Other Poems, Okay Donkey and The Interpreter’s House. She has edited anthologies for Black Bough Poetry and The Mum Poem Press, and she was a winner of the 2022/2023 Magma Editors’ Prize. Find her on X @jenlareine and on instagram @the_colourofhope.

ORDER YOUR SIGNED COPY

BUY FROM NINE PINES PRESS

Our guest feature today comes from poet, Desmond Childs. Des has come along to share his poetry journey so without further ado, it’s over to Des.

My Poetry Journey

Desmond Childs

My interest in poetry first developed during a school English class at the age of fourteen in which we were required to write a poem. I wrote a poem called ‘Time’ which was later published in the school bulletin. Since then, I’ve written poetry in my spare time, finding it to be an outlet from the pressures of everyday life and fulfilling my need to be creative. This also led me to start reading some of the historical poets such as William Blake, Emily Dickinson and Edgar Allen Poe all of which I admire. Later, I started to read more contemporary poets such as Frieda Hughes, and I found her collections Wooroloo and Alternative Values inspirational in my own work.

In more recent times I’ve joined the Hog Cult at the Hedgehog Poetry Press and find the poets there to be the mainstay of my reading, which has led to the development of me as a poet.

I like to write poetry based on real life experiences and the intricate complexities of life with a little added essence of melodrama and fantasy.

Working with Mark Davidson and the poets at the Hedgehog Poetry Press has led to my poetry being published in anthologies such as my poem ‘Bedlam’ in The Bestiary of the Night, and more recently my debut poetry collection The Vagaries of the Heart by The Hedgehog Poetry Press.

BUY

“The Vagaries of the Heart is the debut collection from Desmond Childs and beautifully explores Love with gentle musicality in word and cadence, exploring shade and fracture in relationship in all of its petal-scented form.

This is a delightful collection and one that you will treasure from a poet who be-guides as well as beguiles.”

The Vagaries of the Heart is due to be released 31^st July 2024. However limited edition copies are available to order via Desmond’s website from now.

Here’s the opening poem to the collection.

About Desmond Childs

Desmond was born in Birmingham in 1958 moving to Lichfield in 1959 at the age of 9 months, where he now lives with his wife and youngest daughter and their two dogs. His favourite pastimes are working in his greenhouse and garden, walking his two dogs, and reading and writing poetry. His poetry has been published in anthologies by Hedgehog poetry press, The Vagaries of the heart is his debut collection also published by Hedgehog poetry press. Desmond works for the local Authority as a garden/groundsman and is due for retirement, which he intends to spend gardening and writing poetry.

Links

Website

Twitter

BUY