by Candlestick Press.
Nowadays, running is a serious business and we’re all busy recording our PBs on complicated watches. These poems remind us that there’s still plenty of fun to be had – whether navigating a forest trail before breakfast or lying in bed coming up with reasons not to go out at all.
There’s the familiar sight of a runner skirting shoppers in a busy street, leaving behind a trail of bemusement:
“Was that Paul? Was that Sue? unsure
whether the flickering figures half seen
from behind might have been
the friends they knew, or thought they knew.”from ‘Runners in Town’ by Jenny King.
The abiding spirit of the selection is that running remains the most democratic of sports – and that the main thing really is the taking part, be it in a 5K or a marathon or simply a trot around a local forest.
Poems by Helen Allison, Carole Bromley, Wanda Coleman, Mark Granier, Stephen Keeler, Jenny King, Glyn Maxwell, Eugene Ethelbert Miller, Mandy Sutter and David Wagoner.
Cover illustration by Hannah Forward.
Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing beautiful ‘Instead of a card’ poetry pamphlets. Based in Nottingham in the UK, they’ve been making their mini-anthologies since 2008. Their pamphlets are supplied with an envelope for posting, a bookmark for a special message and an ‘Instead of a card’ sticker to seal the back of the envelope for a lovely finishing touch. All items are collated in a biodegradable cellophane wrapper which is certified to the European (EN13432) norm for industrially compostable packaging and by Vincotte to the OK BIOBASED standard for sustainable, biodegradable film. All their pamphlets are printed in the UK on FSC-accredited paper.