The Essential Space of Play

Reflections on love, loss and the play of poetic imagination recur in this collection. In one of the two free verse works, ‘The Passing Poem’, these unite. This poem was something I felt compelled to write after attending the funerals of two friends. Both times I was struck by how people who might not normally read poetry, let alone write it, composed poems to express their grief and love. For any poet who has doubted their calling (I among them), this was a timely reminder of poetry’s ability to articulate truths in situations, particularly emotionally charged ones, which could not otherwise be as meaningfully expressed. After much travail then, and two funerals too many, I hope this offspring of my labours will make its way into the world, find friends and grow in wisdom through the years.