A Book Review Poems Stuck In My BrainBy Stephanie Henson In her opening poem, Stephanie tells us Books are the Key to unlocking the imagination. With over 80 poems, she has provided plenty of opportunities for middle-grade readers to set free their thoughts with a confident, wide-ranging and highly readable collection. In the regenerative message…
Category: books
Review … Head in the Clouds
Head in the Clouds by Charlie Bown Published in Chasing Clouds … Adventures in a Poetry Balloon (The Dirigible Balloon and Yorkshire Times Publishing 2022) Illustration by Em Humble Teacher says,Get your head out,Right out,Out of the clouds. Nothing good can comeFrom having a headStuck in the clouds,He says. Before I take my headOut of…
Book Review … Steve Whitaker takes a look at Chasing Clouds
Chasing Clouds … Adventures in a Poetry Balloon, published late in November, has just received its first review from that knowledgeable chap and all-round lovely human, Steve Whitaker of the Yorkshire Times. The link to the full review is here and, needless to say, I am incredibly pleased with Mr Whitaker’s perceptive and lyrical take…
The Balloon Goes Up … adventures in children’s poetry
I stagger to the counter, an armful of book packages clutched to my chest. “Hello!” I say through the perspex slot. “It’s me again.” Mrs Goggins in the post office leaps into action and five minutes of weighing, printing and sticking begins as post codes and zip codes are checked. While the growing queue behind…
Fledge
Dandelion Sun A child’s sun finds a dream in young eyes.In blinks of dandelion eclipses,refracted light reflects on retinasholding warmth in ragged leavesbelow a flower standing up and out. Ryegrass and foxtail for company,a golden head of petals,swaying and slight,is there and gone and there again. The wings of friends unfold to test the airwith…
The Book … a poem for children
A classroom book sat all forlorn, unchosen on the shelfand in its simple way it wondered sadly to itself,how many days or weeks or months or years it must there bide,till any child might pick it up and read the words inside. It knew each boy and girl within the classroom by their namesand through…
Artist as Poet …
A book review: Quest for Ions by BrowzanPublished by Poiesis Publishers July 2021ISBN 978-1-5272-9638-1 RRP £15.00 Christopher Brown (aka Browzan), visual artist, filmmaker and poet, has published his first collection of poems Quest for Ions (artwork designed by Russian born, Berlin-based visual artist Olya Dyer). Auto-biographical in nature and written over a decade, the collection…
Will Purdom … agitator, plant-hunter, forester
Will Purdom … agitator, plant-hunter, foresterA review of Francois Gordon’s book by Jonathan Humble It was a hefty thud at the front door that alerted me to the arrival of the post and Francois Gordon’s impressive biography of Edwardian plantsman and social activist Will Purdom.It is a lovely and substantial book to hold. I had…
Book Review: Impermanence by Colin Bancroft
In the doctrines of Buddhism we are told that existence is transient and unpredictable. In the cycle of life nothing lasts, everything decays and because of this impermanence, attachments to things can cause suffering; which is a bit of a shame really, because Colin Bancroft’s collection of poems is a thing of loveliness and I’d…
Fledge – two poems
Originally posted on The Poetry Village:
Today we celebrate the recent Maytree release, Fledge by Jonathan Humble. The collection of poems under the title ‘Fledge’ begins with a reflection on how a wild urban childhood and encounters with nature in adolescence have resonated in adult life. There is a strong nature theme running through the…
Fledge Live Launch
Film from earlier in the evening at Northern Towers with a laptop and a webcam instead of the preferred occasion (sadly cancelled/postponed, who knows?) with wine, beer, music and little bits of cheese on sticks … Video ends abruptly (one poem from the end) when the 50p runs out in the meter and the internet…
Fledge Reviewed #4
Soooo happy with this lovely review from Write Out Loud on the publication of Fledge. Thank you Greg Freeman. 🙂 Link to the review on the Write Out Loud site >>> CLICK Greg Freeman’s review … Fledge: Jonathan Humble, Maytree Press by Greg Freeman Friday 31st July 2020 12:00 am Jonathan Humble lives in…
Jonathan Humble 