FOREST recounts the legend of the black pine that was the first tree to arrive in the young woodland at Sladebank, where I've been working as a poet in residence since early 2024.
Pines are a very ancient genus, emerging in the Jurassic period and this old tree has a lot of stories to tell. The black pine at Sladebank is first shown on an 1880 map - blow-in, import or bounty of a plant hunter collecting in southern Europe where it is native, we will never know - and the tree has intrigued me ever since I first saw it. It then appears on an aerial photograph from 1933, and by 2023, when it appears on Googlemaps, it's merged entirely with the young broadleaf woodland.
People who frequent the woods and know the pine well, call her the mother tree.
A non-narrative, narrative poem told in free verse and fifty cinquains which accumulate through the pages to create a forest, FOREST explores the tree’s experience of migrating across Europe to set root in the woods at a time of escalating conflict and climate emergency.
The whole thing has come together so quickly and here we are - a gorgeous evergreen cover, high white laid paper with a stunning silverpoint drawing from Sarah Gillespie on the fly. I’m really grateful to my friend and editor Philip Rush at the Gloucestershire-based Yew Tree Press for encouragement, attention to detail and an enriching editorial exchange - something so precious, you really don't get that everywhere.
I would be very grateful if you bought a copy - not simply as a vote of confidence in my work (though I appreciate that very much!) but to show support for the small presses of the UK which play such a crucial role in our poetry ecosystem, stimulating diversity, platforming new voices and offering more established poets the chance to experiment and play with poems as art objects and niche ideas that there’s less bandwidth for in mainstream publishing. Put simply, every purchase helps to fund the next round of publications.
Black Pine, the journeying tree, set out this weekend with a first reading under the tree itself to the tune of bird song and bees and children playing nearby. I was joined by friends and guest readers Philip Rush, Alun Hughes and Emma Kernahan with music from Solskin for a very special, intimate event.
It is strangely pleasing to know that only 100 copies of this little green book have been and ever will be made, and I hope it brings joy, sheds seeds and sprouts roots in its unruly, sprawling way, for it’s a poem of communitas in all its rambling tetchy, caring, callous and good-tempered manifestations.
I’ve got a few readings coming up, where I’ll be sharing FOREST and other poems from my Sladebank residency, plus some Lost Mythos shows and a west country tour that continues in the autumn. There are also some workshops here and there. Hope to see you somewhere along the way!
2nd May. STROUD. Children of the Revolution: Folklore Zine Making - a morning of zine making, based on local folk tales, past and present. Subscription Rooms 10am - 12.30pm.
4th May STROUD Lost Mythos show with Mara Simpson & Emma Kernahan at the NeoAncients Festival. Lansdown Hall, 4pm.
8th May CHELTENHAM. ‘Ransom, Ruin, Red Handed.’ Reading, with Michael Symmons Roberts and Anna Saunders, St Paul’s Church, Cheltenham, GL50 4EZ, 7pm. Tickets here.
13th May ABERGAVENNY Poetry Upstairs Reading Series, with Phil Bowen, The Melville Centre for Arts, Pen Y Pound, Abergavenny, 7pm.
6th - 8th June. ABERYSTWYTH. Aberystwyth Poetry Festival.
7th June. BRIDPORT. Beneath the Boughs: an inspiring afternoon of discussion and outdoor engagement with place. Guest speaker, hosted by Hazel Press.
17th June. ONLINE. Women Poets Network Poet to Poet Workshop on the Summer Solstice. 7pm.
9th July. STROUD. Reading from FOREST, Museum in the Park
11th July PRIDDY FOLK FESTIVAL, with Sean Borodale, Alyson Hallett, Philip Rush, 7.30pm in the Church
12th July LEDBURY. Lost Mythos at the Market Theatre 7pm.
13th July TOTNES. Lost Mythos at the Fringe Festival, Totnes
17th July DURSLEY. Lost Mythos at Kingshill House, Dursley
Black Pine animation is by the exceptionally talented Tom Sears (www.tom-sears.com / @theghosoftomsears)