A Rose in Snow Paperback – 25 Sept. 2020

A Rose in Snow is a collection of sharply observed poems, full of fresh turns of phrase and unique points of view. Some of them have been published individually over a lifetime and are collected here for the first time along with new poems.‘It was love and beansand dandelion fields . . .’Although they are categorised into the two groups of nature and more personal poems, there is some crossover throughout the collection. In ‘Yorkshire Cave’ and ‘Flamborough North Landing’, where the colour is predominantly grey, relationships are drawn between rocks and caves and the bones of the human body. In other poems, children balancing their schoolbags resemble magpies, and trees ‘lift their arms for Alleluia!’ A baby ripens along with berries. A spring flowering is ‘as white as first communions.’The poet is mainly there as a point of view in the nature poems though in some she has a companion, and the ‘camera’ pulls back a little to show the two figures in the landscape. This is another, different way in which the personal blends with nature. City and townscapes are viewed with the same attention as the countryside.The poems are very visual. Scenes are strongly drawn and colours are vibrant and clear, often copper, brick red, black and white.I will remember ‘Christmas’ for its wonderfully realised vision of Christmas as a train roaring through the poet’s life, the poignant ‘Self’ and the beautiful ‘East Anglian Meditation’ which has a language, sound and rhythm all its own, particularly in the first stanza, and it ends:Here gatheringof reeds is the grebe’s glory, now and foreverAnd heron’s flight is a leap to paradise.

What a beautiful poetry book. So well written and a delight to read. Thank you