Bøger udgivet af Hedgehog Poetry Press

Life, if you''re lucky, is long and memories stack up like books on a nightstand. There are the meaningful ones, the love and loss ones, the serious and important ones, but also the wild ones - nights out that started without a plan and ended up an adventure, hours'' long conversations that evolved into debates, theses, setting the world to rights, encounters with strangers that led to unexpected friendships, sad nights that felt like endings. This collection is about those nights out and their memories, penned across pages during a pandemic that kept us all from even thinking about going out."Jiving off each other''s wistful reminiscences of glittering nights out, Damien B. Donnelly and Eil├¡n de Paor shimmer, shift and shimmy throughout the sassy and sumptuous ''In the Jitterfritz of Neon''. This book is alive with vivid and vibrant imagery, richly nuanced lyricism, sharply crafted syntax and playful narratives. Capped off with decadent humour and hard-won worldly wisdom, it is a delight of nocturnal exploits, stylish city scenes, romantic dalliances, high-spirited camaraderie and aches for the freedoms we once shared."Anne Casey, Poet"Damien B. Donnelly and Eil├¡n de Paor''s dazzling collection of twenty poems shimmers and magnetizes with sensual, nostalgic, celebratory evocations of wild nights in Dublin, Amsterdam and New York. The poems complement each other in a beautiful dance, revelling in sensory experiences, friendship, desire and hope."Nathanael O''Reilly, Poet, author of (Un)belonging, Preparations for Departure and Distance "''In the Jitterfritz of Neon'' serves up a heady mix of poetic cocktails, taking you on a ghost world odyssey of epic wild nights out. A chatty mix of adventure and self-discovery, it swirls glorious recollections of those precious shared times out that shape us and imbue places with meaning."Rhona Greene, Writer"The live feed between Damien B. Donnelly & Eil├¡n de Paor''s sensual and deeply personal poems, is electrifying. The twinned hearts of these poems invoke duende as they beat their daring, striking rhythms."Eleanor Hooker, Poet

In this short collection I''ve tried to find hope in unexpected places, even where it''s not immediately apparent. Ancient people braving the alps to find jade, my Mum''s recent failing health and death, a bird of prey searching for food and Rembrandt''s early portrait in his empty studio, summing up all his hope and artistic ambition on a small 9" x 12" wooden panel. Hope is everywhere, even if it''s hard to cling onto right now.

"In his refreshing, clean lines Goodwin combines humour and close observation with hope for a future that inevitably involves departure from this life on earth."- Sevak Edward Gulbekian, author of In the Belly of the Beast"Manning Goodwin''s poems are insightful meditations about the dilemmas of modern daily life with a deeply felt spiritual foundation. They address philosophically, with honesty and wit, the dichotomy of inner turbulence and a contented quotidian surface."- Nomi Rowe, author of In Celebration of Cecil Collins: Visionary Artist and Educator"Goodwin''s collection reads like a memoir on mortality, taking us inside a liminal space where vignettes of everyday life - reading, having the boiler fixed - jostle with Cicero and salmon, poisoned figs, goldmines, Afghan ponies and Chinese seas.From the opening line, ''Memories of missing people'', Manning''s writing feels as urgent as it is oneiric; death, like the ''chaps in caps'', is never far from the poet''s thoughts as he gently oscillates between acceptance, humour and thoughts of the beyond, imbued at times with a poignant fatalism (''They took away my flame yet let me live'').In one poem, he writes of making a mistake when planning his tombstone (''a five instead of twenty-five thus lopping off a score of years''), while his study of the belladonna plant weaves ancient tales into the plight of modern hearts. The poems flow around gentle structures; strong iambic rhythms are particularly effective in ''Sockeye Salmon'' (''We jump the falls that thunder down /We feed both bear and man, surviving''). A dialogue with death, in which every word feels warmly and purposefully alive."- Holly Dawson, Writer & Editor

''There is a sense of loss in many of these poems from Lynn Valentine, but never of emptiness. The writing is focussed: ties to family, ties to place, personal and shared experiences. The language is worked in such a way that it feels easy, the sounds sit comfortably in the lines, the words controlled to deliver emotional punch. Even when she steps away from the immediate, when there is a sense of otherness, Lynn Valentine observes the world from a solid place. Read these poems out loud: they''ll resonate.'' - Charlie Gracie - novelist, poet, scriever''On picking up Lynn''s pamphlet, find a comfy place to pause and read: all you have to lose is one connection at a time from your daily drudge. Allow your mind to uncouple long enough to embrace her imagery, to wander in and out of light and shade, to unpack elements of recollection with which we will all connect and through her welcome weave of Scots find new adventures to inspire you.''- Jim Mackintosh - poet, editor, Makar

"McManus has used great skill in building up his collection in Solastalgia.He varies form and point of view, creating poignant poetry, stunning imagery and sound echoes throughout. ''I Cried For You Today'' brought me close to tears. The reader won''t be disappointed."- Patricia M Osborne''A lasting memorial to those not coming back, and the end of the age of certainties.Every disaster needs its commentators to keep our memories of such times alive, and to hold those responsible to account. McManus does that.''- Nigel Kent, poet, author, reviewer. 

Walking Off the Land offers a series of glimpses into a disappearing way of life - a rural childhood on a small Ulster farm. Drawing a soft echo of remembrance into the present moment, this collection of poems explores the seasonal rituals and traditions that once shaped the days and lives of those who worked the land. It also traces the gradual decline of a family and an old farm. Walking Off the Land is a loving history of country life, of loss and of letting go.  

"I love that these words are about The Self - But not self-indulgent. There''s no ego here, just words - Take ''em or leave ''em. There''s so much hate in this world any bit of loving''s gotta be alright."             - Steve Ignorant"In ''The Machinery of Life'' Darren J Beaney returns to the territory of his pamphlet, ''Honey Dew'': drawing on myth, literature, and his own experience he explores the subject that has occupied poets through time: the nature of love. This is, however, love as lived in the twenty-first century captured in poetry that is inventive, witty, and frequently surprising but never slushy or sentimental. This is true love as experienced by a man with middle age spread who cannot believe his luck and whose poems gives hope for us all."             - Nigel Kent"Darren J Beaney is proof that there''s always something new to say about love, in the right hands. In these refreshingly original poems, various and many aspects of love are touched upon, and whatever the subject - whether it''s glamorous mythology or gluttonous middle-age spread - Beaney succeeds in not just finding the beauty within but in managing to clearly express an undeniable truth: that while love remains the most brittle thing, it''s when our bodies start to break down that love, very often, proves itself to be stronger than ever before."             - Thomas McColl "Darren J Beaney writes vibrant love poems that are beautifully sincere. They tackle an old theme with a modern, questing eye, capturing the shifting weather of the heart through exciting imagery, playful verbs and luminous small details."             - John McCullough

"Reading Robin McNamara''s Under a Mind''s Staircase is like taking a journey through the human condition. McNamara masterfully conveys the idea of the unreachable: the sense of something forthcoming, acts of grasping at straws, and an eventual falling away. Achingly beautiful and expertly written, McNamara''s poetry will leave you asking yourself questions about the complexities of our reality."Elizabeth Bates.EIC Dwelling Literary & Pushcart Prize nominee USA"McNamara''s poems teem with images from the natural world, from this world and other worlds, and from what he himself calls ''tides and seasons''. Often he is subsumed in nature: ''The lichen and moss grows/so slowly over my mind.''There is an underlying sense of betrayal here, betrayal by old loves and critics, by the education system and even by nature itself: ''When the winds rustled through/The yellow fields of corn,/I thought of a safe place,/A place I''ll return to with/grey hair and creaking bones.''But the ''safe place'' is always threatened, never quite what was promised, and there is a constant striving in the poems for inspiration. This is especially true when McNamara writes about writing itself, battling uncertainties and rejections and, in one poem, trying to conduct the muse: ''Can you shape a melody/that shows how I see you/in blue, sweetness, strumming sounds?''There''s humour too, a gentle smile in A Nun on a Bicycle, but a blacker humour in poems like It''s Quite Mental Really: ''I tried to take a walk but/my Agoraphobia said/"I''m back, bitch."Catherine Ann Cullen.Poet In Resident at Poetry Ireland 

''There occurs an uprooting'' writes Peter A. in Helenium One and Only, a poem from his deeply moving collection Art of Insomnia, and this line epitomises the book''s theme - the sudden absence of a much-loved wife, lost suddenly and tragically. The music of this grieving collection is various - sometimes staccato, stark, and direct, (''I have to escape / the persistence of kindness''), sometimes fluid and unfurling, long single stanzas rushing down the page, other times nakedly confessional or poignantly self-critical (''Some people think you''re better/ than you actually are''), and other times spare, and with careful end rhyme (''Though in moments still/quiet teardrops spill''). An orchestral collection of many parts, it is enriching in its diversity, a sustained song of grief which is compelling and affecting.Art of Insomnia is a moving conversation with a loved wife, and more broadly with anyone who has suffered a loss. It is a eulogy for that which is lost and yet equally a brave celebration of the solaces to be found in life - friendship, community and, as this vital and potent collection proves, in poetry itself.''- Anna Saunders - author of Burne Jones and the Fox, Ghosting for Beginners, and Feverfew, (Indigo Dreams)

Back in 2017 as part of my MA in creative writing I was required to take up a writing residency. I chose my local Victorian park, Worth Park, in Crawley, West Sussex. As part of my remit, I researched the park's past going back to 19th September 1888 when Sir Francis Montefiore, the first and last Baronet of Worth Park, brought home his Austrian bride. This short fictional West Sussex tale is based on facts from archived newspaper cuttings, black and white historic photographs and filling in the gaps with fiction. Step back to 1888 and become part of the Victorian crowd waiting at Three Bridges Station.

In Vexed - Z D Dicks'' electrifying new collection, a series of unexpected protagonists face dramatic challenges (a Bodhisattva learns to let go, Diogenes looks at a cynical world, Achilles hears his dead lover), and the human condition, with all it''s trials and tribulations, longings and aversions, fears and excitements are explored in a series of richly lyrical and vividly imagined poems.Dicks takes the reader into fantastical, yet convincing worlds to explore our darkest secrets and inner conflicts - in Black Tooth Fish there is the sometimes tortuous nature of desire, death is examined in Blossom, in Buffet a disaster benefits those who aren''t the victims, in Doppelg├ñnger - the protagonist comes to terms with the painful experience of being ghosted, Owl Rising - is an exuberant giving into to the lack of control we experience in life and The Loaded Gun details a quasi-sexual attitude to violence.This is an unflinching and clearsighted collection, in which our most intimate concerns are explored and addressed head on, in charged, beautifully wrought and fiercely original poems.These are poems which address the perhaps irresolvable conflicts, questions and dilemmas in our life - this is a book for anyone who has ever felt vexed.''In Vexed, Z D Dicks pulls titan, shaman, alchemist and fantastic beast into a realm where the natural and manufactured coalesce. Our guide through this landscape of petrol rainbows, metal tongues and acid storms is a poet enraptured and enlightened by the beauty and awe of the unusual and terrific. His strict eye always on his deft organic verse; Germanic, alliterative and mythological, but always placed in the painful present''.     -R M Francis   ''The poems in Zack Dicks''s Vexed are not ones you would want to curl up and get cosy with. The language is visceral and sometimes startling, the images precise and unexpected. In ''Doppelg├ñnger'', his ''double rides a hog    roars through streets / chugs and judders    with goggled fly eyes''; and I suspect this is how to experience Vexed. Don''t examine each line or image, buckle up and enjoy the ride.'' -Angela France  ''Vexed introduces an exciting new poetic voice. In language which crackles and fizzes, the collection offers us a range of subjects, drawing on everything from Brexit-era Britain to Classical myth. I''m particularly taken with explorations of the natural world in this collection: in poems like ''Falcon Drive'' and ''Black Tooth Fish,'' the poet proves himself adept at fashioning a language which thrillingly gives us the world of beasts. Powerful and distinctive, Vexed announces a writer to watch.'' -Jonathan Edwards ''These poems bring to mind every apocalyptic painting I have ever seen. In dark reds and golds they are bone black-box theatres all painted with muscular language. Here, we see Diogenes the beggar, pull a half-eaten sandwich from a city bin and a man stripped down to his bones being eyed by dogs. Tread carefully in this vexed and shaken world when one trip on the platform could send you plummeting to hell''s fiery tarpits'' -Helen Ivory

"Liar Liar" is a much-needed response to the myriad of dangers we all face in an increasingly challenging Covid world, and examines the disturbing lack of coherent response to that challenge from our constitutional governments and how the people of the UK and USA in particular have suffered, often times paying with their lives. Brian McManus paints compelling lyrical word pictures of the distressing tales of ordinary, everyday people who find their lives torn asunder, and the dearth of both intellect and ability amongst our political leadership for managing and directing a meaningful response to such an all-encompassing pandemic.If you haven''t read a book of poetry for a while you need to pick this one up - today.

With Songs to Learn & Sing we wanted to try something a little different. We challenged poets to choose their favourite song (or a favourite song, nobody has just one, after all) and from there they should shamelessly steal the title and then write a poem that responds to it. This response could be based on how the song makes them feel, a memory of where they heard it first or whatever it was that made it important in the first place.This proved to be very popular and choosing Twenty from among them was all but impossible. But choose them you must and we were pleased to select Ceinwen Haydon’s I Want To Hold Your Hand as the winner of our competition as it summed-up exactly what it was all about in the first place, although Ali Jones and Mick Yates, our Highly Commended Runners-Up, both could have taken the metaphorical Gold Disc on another day.Songs to Learn & Sing is something a little different and we are sure that it will soon become a classic.

From the sonnet, ''Tournesols'' to ''Boutique Hotel,'' any joy and relief in this collection of poems are short-lived, reflecting their creator''s real-life experiences and those of others she knows well. We are born, we bloom for a while, if lucky, but like the wondrous evening primrose, emblem of her childhood on the sand dunes near Porthcawl, soon wrinkle and close. And all along the way lies hidden danger. From whoever is lying in wait for us to trip and fall, to the very air we breathe. Whoever is pressing the right buttons to create the kind of world only seen in futuristic films. Beneath and beyond the temporal, visible beauty of this planet and those we love, lurk our worst imaginings, while easily peddled words of comfort and hope soon weaken and disintegrate. And then there''s the never-ending guilt. William Butler Yeats was right.                       ''Too long a sacrifice can make a stone of the heart. O when may it suffice?''

These poems are a selection from the poems written one a day day during lockdown and as we eased out. They are a diary of the poet''s inner journey; a record of the range of emotions and thoughts during those months of isolation that we can all recognise but might find hard to articulate. They run the gamut of frustration, fear, sadness, loneliness and resignation, but also the joy of being part of the natural world and the freedom to do nothing. They are shot through with hope and optimism.

Partnerships are demanding. Reconciling two sets of expectations, hopes, ambitions, desires and demands is an exacting business. The ideal is surely a mutually agreed balance between give and take, rights and compromises, constraints and freedoms. Any intrusion into a partnership is capable of challenging it, rocking it, even destroying it ... but mutual recognition of a greater good can seal and cement a relationship. With mutual well-being as an agreed aim, supported by good humour, grace and forgiveness, individuals might grow the kind of partnership that becomes something more than both of them, something greater than they might have imagined. 

There is a house in a forest, where something strange is happening. The birds are quiet, the animals avoid it and it is only spoken of by children in awed whispers, in torchlight around campfires.Featuring Twenty poems from Twenty poets, this spooky collection of poetry is one that is destined to be dusted off every Halloween.Includes new work from:∩╗┐∩╗┐Mick YatesOz HardwickCeinwen E. Cariad HaydonElisabeth KellySue IbrahimNaomi SterlingAndrew SticklandAndy EycottBrian McManusPhil SantusSusan DarlingtonMargaret RoyallMerril D. SmithPatricia M. OsborneAmina AlyalDarren J BeaneyKathryn AldermanKate YoungRosie BarrettPhilippa Hatton-Lepine 

Vertigo to Go is a timely and searing examination of the current state of the world, seen through the eyes of a young protagonist dealing with grief, addiction, loneliness and madness in the face of invasive technologies, vast systemic inequalities and environmental crisis. Vertigo to Go is a lyrical hymn to the power of poetry to sublimate pain and fear into art that is unafraid to confront the problems of the world.