Midsummer

£6.00

Midsummer

At the stair corner where it turns for the attic

a shaft of sunlight strikes the step – only in June

for a moment at ten o’clock, just where sometimes

the moon looks in en passant

on its way to outer darkness.

Like neighbours who call by once in a while

to ask if we’d like a bag of runner beans,

tell news of their travelling son and ask after ours.

 

The swifts swooping under the eaves to a hidden nest

keep this a family house. From a top window

I watch the infant rowan berries bob in the breeze

and I sit for a moment on the attic stairs

to consider this year in its fulness,

before it slips away, one step at a time.

 

Read a Sample.

 

 

Description

Jenny King was born in London during the Blitz and wrote poetry from childhood. She studied English at Cambridge, then taught it in schools, first in Shrewsbury before coming to Sheffield, where she has lived ever since and where she also ran Sticky Bun Writers for twelve years. She received an Eric Gregory award in 1969 and published a poetry pamphlet with The Mandeville Press in 1981. She has continued to write and publish in magazines and anthologies and came second in the Bridport Prize in 2003. Her pamphlet, Tenants, was published by Smith|Doorstop in 2014.

Midsummer collects Jenny King’s latest poetry and is published 1st February 2020.

Additional information

Dimensions 21.0 × 14.8 × 0.5 cm
ISBN

978-1-912196-32-6

Pages

20

Publication Year

2020