2023 was a difficult year with illness in the family. I'm going to attempt to  look back and post poetry publications and reviews of Fivestones.  It's a kind of reversed chronological account, I want to acknowledge the editors and reviewers whose magazines and insightful work provide the backbone of the current poetry publication world. I am so grateful to them all.

A lovely surprise to have a poem that has haunted me for years accepted for publication in Carmen et Error  

'To Ann Lang, South Tawton, 1737' is in Issue 6). Thank you Kym Deyn, Editor -in -Chief of Carmen et Error.

 It's a poem written after standing at the old lych-gate and staring back into the  ether  whilst visiting South Tawton church in Devon, where I was trying to conjure, to recapture  a foremother's wedding in the church. 

'Outside, standing at the lych-gate,

in this raw twenty-first century winter light,

she’d like, like hares,

to spin the merry-go round,

turning the corner of the corner of time.'

(From 'To Ann Lang')

I'm so grateful for the support of The Museum of Dartmoor Life at Okehampton and to Crediton Museum  for displaying copies of Fivestones for sale in their shops. It is not easy for authors - perhaps especially poets - to have their books available in main stream bookshops so the support of local based community hubs such as these two wonderful museums is invaluable. 

Reviews

I'm thrilled to have received several lovely reviews of Fivestones. Thanks so much to Sally Long, Editor of Allegro; Rowena Somerville, reviewer for High Window; Sue Sims, reviewer for Second Light and Miriam Hastings, who's reviewed the collection on Goodreads. See more details of the reviews here, in Reviews. 

'I'm not sure where

or when it was,

but know at the time

we are playing cobs ...'

My third poetry collection, published in December 2022 by Lapwing Publications is now available to purchase in the Bookshop of this site. I've been working on this sequence for a while no; it's good to know it's out in print at last and I'm so grateful to Lapwing's editor, Dennis Greig for taking and helping my polish my work.

    Tracing a path from Scotland to Devon, the poems follow a kind of narrative arc and the book is split into two main sequences, the second of which,  'From the Ridge' contains the title poem, an extract from which appears below:

 '...someone says

Let’s bury a lozenge tin.

Let’s dig under Douglas fir.

Let’s fill it with our special things –

my rag doll’s bow, your

comb, the lone-pine badge.

Let’s leave treasure for someone-in-future to find.

What we didn’t know – or maybe did -

was how our grounded earth

has Nike’s historical wings.

Now, tin’s long past rusted

under firs below the hedge

and looking back, full-moon legions

casting their translucent x-ray light

have mindfully spun a herepath course

over our ridge’s wildest fields.

In front the once den-tree,

the steady beat of solid ground-bass rift

of earth in Dagger’s Close,

(field intent with mystery),

 begins to shift, give up its ghosts -

how the glittering swards glint

juggling past’s interpretations -

and Nemetona,

    She grounds the dissipating energies

 anchors us into rootedness.

(From 'Fivestones')

 This collection is a tour-de-force on the history of Devon and by extension beyond. It has an edginess which is probably you the person and priestess in these poems.' (Dennis Greig)

 I'm writing this in retrospect. Covid and the pandemic has thrown us out of our usual routines; other events and other issues took over from keeping records on a website. But here I will try to organise and record some poetry successes I've had since mid 2020. 

I've not really considered myself to be a surrealist poet in any shape or form, but when I came across Survision Magazine I took the chance and sent in a short handful of my more 'way-out' poems  to their annual competition, titling it  flashes, sparks, a series of dots and dashes; I was absolutely amazed when it received an 'honourable mention'. This little success has left me imagining other new poems in  'surrealist' mode.

Thanks so much to Anatoly Kudryavitsky and other editors/judges of James Tate International Poetry Prize 2021.

   ****

In early 2021 I was thrilled that Sarah Law, Editor of the delightful and unique Amethyst Review accepted three poems that I'd sent in, which were taken from a long sequence I'm working on occasionally - when time permits - which will be I hope a 'homage' to the women and landscapes of my maternal ancestors in south Devon. The poems are a sort of collage using pressed flowers, photo-shopped old maps and ideas taken from family history research. At present the sequence is titled Fields and Flowers and the three published in Amethyst Review  in June 2021, as Fields and Flowers, include pressed tufted vetch, germander speedwell and are set in Abbotskerswell, Lydcott (near Sampford Courtenay) and Christow. 

It's a turbulent time for everyone and  as I write this, there is still Lockdown. So many poets are finding voices to document their individual experiences and journeys through this. I have managed a handful of poems, though I  find too much time is taken up  negotiating various necessary extra daily tasks, ie just surviving this period, but I have had some  publishing successes, which I will note here.

Second Light

Artemis

I'm very grateful to Sue Sims for her encouraging review of my pamphlet It Was When It Was When It Was (Dempsey & Windle, 2018) in Artemis Magazine 24 (Second Light).

Sims comments, [it] 'is a nostalgic collection that addresses family, culture and the threads that links us to the past with an acute attention to detail "deep white sill of the still-room ('Charlotte's Elderflowers'), "chipped white cherub" ('Lament') and some beautiful metaphors, for example "Her eyes are sea-mirrored creatures birthed with milk" (Grandma  in 'Farm Kitchen') to bring the memories and the stories to life. This is very much a collection that demonstrates the link between individuals and their environment and Sampson's obvious love for the natural world permeates throughout.

Molly Bloom

I was especially pleased to have another poem accepted by Aidan Semmens, Editor of Molly Bloom, for Issue 22 of the magazine.  You can read 'From the Ridge; a Devon Triptych' here.  It is a 'collage' text and image poem and you can see one of the 'map' images  below this post. 'Triptych' is one of a sequence of poems that I'm working on all inspired by the landscapes, history, family history and 'spirit of place' of the mid Devon area, where I was brought up. 

Semmens' introduction to the magazine concludes with the following comment, 

which sums up the reasons that poets and poetry are indispensable now:

'While the times we are living in right now may be full of strangeness and uncertainty, there must be one part in each of us which asks: "Why make poetry now? How can poetry really matter?" And another which replies: "It's precisely at times like this that poetry matters most." Poetry, as much as any other form, provides context, a balance between change and continuity, a sense both of the now and the beyond the now, a way of exploring and expanding one's own thinking as much as the world beyond. For all these reasons and more the show must go on. For some others that may mean the show must go online. Which is precisely where Molly Bloom has been for the past seven years and where she intends to go on going on'. (See  Molly Bloom 22)

Well, early in this dire year leading up  to Lockdown, I had several poetry publishing successes. David Coldwell Editor of The Poetry Village accepted 'Narcissi in North Devon' and published it along with the illustration above. I have taken the liberty to copy the image as it conjures up the 'geni-loci', the spirit of my poem. My thanks to David for the picture. 'Narcissi' came about during a short trip to north Devon in the search for ancestors, in the spring of 2019. A few days which happened to coincide with one of the most awful rough weather patches of the season. It was not a 'planned' poem but I think was a kind of force of nature; as we were driving along the rain soaked lanes the poor soaking wild daffodils/narcissi  seemed to be waving to me demanding I give them a voice. That's how it began. Unfortunately the intended 'family history' poems didn't materialise. But that's creativity for you! Now, given what is happening in the world the poem seems prescient and looking back to the Poetry Village website to find the link to my poem I am surprised and honoured to find that one reader, 'matty', has left a lovely comment about it:

'This poem, and its opening stanza, blew me away. There is a playfulness about the way you use language which contrasts beautifully with the deeper meanings and subtleties of the work. Its clever too, inferring shared knowledge of other famous poems and topical, in the moment, not just springtime, but speaks to our current predicament and our own mortality.' 

Unfortunately as I didn't see this comment before I've not thanked the reviewer, and comments  are closed, but I so appreciate he/she has taken the trouble to show  appreciation of 'Narcissi'. 

 Places of Poetry Project

I'm thrilled to have been invited to have 'As we climbed the slope', one of the poems I

pinned on the Places of Poetry map, included in the forthcoming Places of Poetry: Mapping the Nation in Verse anthology, which is due later this year. Something to look forward to during this tumultuous time.  

Poetry Space Spring Showcase 

 Sue Sims, Editor of Poetry Space, selected a poem for the Spring Showcase.  I always love to find that the issue's editor has accepted one of mine; the Showcase poems are selected anonymously and there's an added bonus - an editorial comment about each poem. Thanks Sue! I wrote 'If you look hard enough' when I was just a little fed up with our contemporary obsession with technology.

Another very lucky month for poetry publication. I was thrilled that Nathan Evans, Guest Editor of Poetry Space's Winter Showcase, included 'Playground', one of a sequence of poems that I've written about childhood in North Tawton in Devon. Thanks so much to Nathan and Poetry Space Editor Sue Sims. 

Then, Kathleen Strafford Editor of Runcible Spoon accepted 'my oldest friends', a poem I'd written on one of those 'bad hair' days. 

Finally, it felt like home to have two more poems accepted by Annest Gwilym,  for publication in Nine Muses.  'I went down into the deepest woods' was (a little like 'my oldest friends'), one of those poems ( a voice?) that just appears out of nowhere and insists that it be written down. 'Mothers of the Ancient Moor' was more demanding and came about after months of research into and much reflection about my maternal 

'mitochondrial'  ancestors, most of whom had been born and spent all their lives on or on the edges of Dartmoor. (Note that these last two poems were actually published early in 2020).

Thanks to all these editors for taking on my poems!

It was very special to be invited to be one of the guest poets at fellow poet Chrissy Banks' Taunton Book launch  of her wonderful new collection The Uninvited and to hear her read a selection of its poems, along with other local poets including Genista Lewes, Anthony Watts and John Stuart. 

During the summer of 2019 I enjoyed contributing to the unique poetry project Places of Poetry.  For anyone who loves both writing poetry about a particular place, and maps, the project provided a special opportunity not only to write new work but also to collate older poems and pin them on the site in the spot where they belong, so that the poems are forever attached to their  home-location. I'm not sure how many poems I let go and left 'in their home' but most of them were in the vicinity of mid and north Devon, including at North Tawton, Okehampton and Cheldon - all places important to me when I was a child. 'As we Climbed the Slope' - which was first published by Ink Sweat & Tears and then appears in my collection It Was When It Was When It Was - is pinned on the site of the old, higher church graveyard  at Okehampton. 

June was a special poetry  month. Three poems were published by Nine Muses. Two of them, 'Moor Mother' and 'Lych Way', are poems inspired by recent Dartmoor - the first one I wrote about how worried we should be about moor's future and the second links with family history. The other  one, 'Dundrennan Abbey', I wrote after  a visit to that historical place, which is famously linked with Mary Queen of Scots. Thanks so much to Nine Muses' Editor Annest Gwilym.

Another three poems were accepted in June by Sarah James, Editor of the delightful little online magazine LitWorld2, along with the wonderful atmospheric images of S.A. Leavesley. These were from a sequence I occasionally work on where I draft observations and ideas about the natural world. These poems were published later in the year. She-Fox, Holding Back the Words and Times Old Father. 

Lovely to have another two poems appearing in two poetry web-zines. 'Solstice' was published online by Peeking Cat Poetry. Thanks so much to the magazine's editor, Sam Rose.

'Conkers', was published in the online web journal Picaroon,  edited by Kate Garrett. Thanks Kate. 

      It has been a busy couple of months. Sue Sims, Editor of poetryspace, invited me to Guest Edit the Spring Showcase edition. It provided an opportunity to read a number of exellent and moving poems, but it was such a difficult task to select a final choice of ten poems as I wanted to comment on and include almost all of them.  Do take a look at my final choice here, at poetryspace Spring Showcase 2019.

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      I was delighted to have my poem 'Death-Winter' published on the online webzone Ink Sweat and Tears.  'Death-Winter' is a special poem-of-the-past, which returns to North Tawton, the Devon home of my childhood and the blizzards of 1963. The poem brings together a strange synchronicity of events: the awful weather, our family preparing to leave our beloved home, the death in London of Sylvia Plath (which caused such a 'stir' in our town) and the daily loss of new-born lambs on our farm.  

    Thanks so much to Helen Ivory, Editor of  Ink Sweat and Tears. 

*****

     Two poems which I drafted some years ago and have always wanted to place in a publication have now found a lasting home. They were both instigated by the terrible Foot and Mouth outbreak of  2001. Thanks so much Sarah Law for accepting 'Offering' and 'Cathedral'. 

****

     It's wonderful to have a poem in Issue 13 of  the online quarterly review of poetry The High Window.   'Uffculme' takes me back to the few blissful years I lived near that parish in Devon, when I'd often walk beside the river Culm.

     And I was thrilled when David Cooke, C0-Editor of The High Window, also invited me to review two recent collections published by my own wonderful publishers, Dempsey & Windle. Both were collections written by Alexandra Davis: Torches and Sparks, Responses to the Poetry of the First World War  and Torches.  You can read the review here. 

****

     Most exciting of all during this busy time, my short collection Stretch of the Long-Tongued Honey-Bee was highly commended in the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize, 2018.

I was honoured to be invited along with fellow poet and friend Chrissy Banks to be co Guest-Reader at the November poetry evening held at CIC in Taunton by Fire River Poets.

The FRPs were marking their 30th year so having once been a member of the longstanding poetry group it was special to be able to not only share the guest reading spot, but also to meet up with several other poets I'd not seen for a while. 

Well it's all over now but the photo-gallery here will bring back special memories of the evening of the Devon book launch for my small collection It Was When It Was When It Was. A special gathering of poets, family, friends and musicians. I'm not often a Facebook poster but this event had to be remembered. Here's what I put on FB:

I had such a lovely evening and we made over £200 for the charity Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution. A special Thanks to my publishers, Janice Dempsey and Donall Dempsey of Dempsey and Windle Publishing for travelling to Devon from Sussex in support of my book and launch; to the other poets/writers -Chrissy Banks James Turner Genista Wheatley Sue Sims Alasdair Paterson Denise McSheehy Tony Watts & Martin Patton who were so generous in coming along to take part in an evening of splendid readings; 'Meander' provided a delightful musical background and we had delicious and ample food supplied by Hilary Partridge Catering AND moreish cakes kindly donated by Ruth's Real Food (Thank-you so much Ruth for your generous offer - they went down a treat) ... But sad to say, I forgot to organise photos!  If anyone out there has any, please do post ... Slight correction here, (and add on another thanks) as Alan Quick, editor of the local Crediton Courier did join us at the start of the evening and took photos, which should be available to obtain some time next week... Apologies re the add-ons to this post, but I meant also to thank Alasdair and Sue along with Myra Schneider and Kris Hemensley for their lovely endorsements of the pamphlet...

  ...    There are more photos from this event below taken by Donall Dempsy & posted on Facebook. 

          If you'd like a copy of It Was When It Was it is available from me (see the Bookshop) or from the publishers, Dempsey & Windle. 

It's always exciting to have another poem accepted by an editor for a poetry magazine and recently it's been especially rewarding to have three published by Sarah Law of Amethyst Review,  a magazine for those 'who are interested in creative exploration of spirituality and the sacred'.

Erasing Ways

Long Tails  and Kite's Well are all connected with the natural world, the past, the garden or/and a feature of the landscape in Devon. 

 Thanks very much to editor Christine Murray for taking on my work for Poethead Index of Contemporary Women Poets. I am posting several of these poems here as pdfs, so as to display them visually with their original formats: 'Anchoress' has been around for many years, in different guises; it came about after I researched Canonsleigh in Devon but has undergone a variety of formats.  'At Jacobstowe' is a poem inspired by my maternal grandmother's families links with that parish and 'On Whitehorse Hill'. re-invents an imagined episoed in the life of Queen Aelfthryth, whose family were probably from Dartmoor in the heart of Devon.

Pulsar poetry  accepted a poem called 'Bird' and it's just appeared on their webzine. Many thanks to editor, David Pike. 

       Amaryllis Poetry published  'piano-lesson'. I wrote this short poem to vent feelings from long ago concerning a harsh  piano teacher of my schooldays. I won't name her, but a persistent memory is of the weeks, months, years I spent on Bach's Minuet in G. According to said piano teacher I was not sufficiently steady in my counting of the crotchets, quavers etc. Although I went on learning the piano with yet another piano teacher, this dreaded piece became my most hated. I had to repeat it every week of my time with ... but not once to her satisfaction. I have never played it since. At least, marginly, she was better than my first, who kept all her piles of sheet music in the bath!

Many thanks to Stephen Daniels

The Open Mouse webzine published 'Tonight'. Sad to see that the webzine is shortly to close. Yes another quality poetry magazine soon to be gone. 

A poem I wrote after re-discovering an old childhood photo, which I titled 'Flash', has just been published on the online poetry website, Molly Bloom. Thanks so much to editor Aidan Semmens for accepting my work. 

A poem I've recently written which comes from a sequence I'm working on about memory and the landscape of my childhood, titled 'Remembering that Late Summer-Day' was accepted by Abegail Morley and published on  The Poetry Shed a wonderful poetry blog/webzine where she generously showcases other poets' work. Am honoured to have work featured here.

Delighted to have two poems included in November's issue of The Lake. Thanks to the editor, John Murphy.

I was thrilled to have a poem selected by Rosie Jackson for the Poetry Space Autumn Showcase, 2017. The poem is 'Lost in Galloway'.

Rose commented:

'Human presence is almost irrelevant in this lyrical evocation of a world of geese, squirrels, kites, does, natural beauty. That the poet literally takes bearings from them and not from any map is an original touch, leading to the brilliant seemingly casual throw-away last line. And I loved the memorable ‘wheeling black scripts left by Barnacle geese scrolling their skies.’  

     That poem happened during a trip to Galloway, sparked by a conjunction of splendiferous scenery and the freeing message of Rebecca Solnit's FieldGuide to Getting Lost, (which I'd read on the train).

Thanks so much to Rosie and Sue Sims, Editor of Poetry Space. 

Allegro Poetry Magazine accepted two poems; they appeared in Issue 14, September 2017. They are 'Mrs Danton's Corner Garden' and 'Just the Way Things Are'. 'Just the Way Things Are' was written after a visit to the location of author E.M. Delafield's once home, 'Croyle, near Kentisbeare, in Devon.

Thanks so much to Allegro's Editor, Sally Long.

Thanks so much to  the editors of Algebra of Owls for accepting one of my poems

'It was when it was when it was'. It appeared online at Algebra of Owls.

The poem appeared following a visit back to a once upon time  home, at Cheldon, in Devon.

Thanks so much Algebra of Owls editors. 

Thanks to the editors of Message in a Bottle, who included 'Chill' in their recent online edition. See at Message in a Bottle.

A slightly different version of the poem first appeared on GreatWorksOnline. 

Another Online Poem appeared on the webzine Ink Sweat & Tears.

This one is titled 'As we climbed the slope'. See at Ink Sweat & Tears. The poem began after a trip down in Devon in early spring looking for graves and memorials of ancestors,  with a serendipitious discovery of  a cluster of graves of direct great great great grandparents. (Any avid genealogist reading this may be interested in Finding Sites the Older Ways, my inter-related family history blog).

Thank-you so much to Helen Ivory, Editor of Ink Sweat & Tears.

                         Charles Lugg's Cystal-Tree,1769 appears in The Journal#50

Thanks very much to Sam Smith, editor of The Journal.

Do have a look at Down the Devon roads to Dunkeswell a blog piece about women writers with Devon links.

If you have come upon my occasional blog, Scrapblog a Writer from the South-West you might like to hop over to my new one, Writing Women on the Devon Land.

A  poem titled Caernarfon has been published in Poetry Space Summer Showcase 

with lovely comments by Guest Editor, Susan Castillo Street:

 This poem evokes remembered love so well.  I particularly liked the short lines and Laurentian rhythms, which convey physical urgency, and the images of exploding fireworks and rainbow colours (rockets, Catherine-wheels) which evoke bedazzlement.  Sexy and tender'.

Thanks very much Susan and to Sue Sims, of Poetry Space.

Am delighted that a selection of my work is published in Sarasvati, 41.  Available from Indigo Dreams

I very much appreciate and thank Ronnie Goodyear and Dawn Bauling for accepting my work.

Poem Centenary published in Lost Things; A collection of poems from all over the world edited by Emma Kendall Lea, Reading Room Cafe Project Publishing.

The poem Isis is a Stone is included in latest March issue of The Dawntreader (Indigo Dreams Publishing). 

Pleased to have two poems Julia's Seascape and Sixty-Five selected by Editor Susan Sims, published in the Spring edition of Poetry Space The editor commented that:

In Julia’s Seascape, the poet explores her loss of self with a light touch ,,,  and finally to end with, a poem that delights both in the magic of words and celebrates a coming of age. (Sixty Five)

Thanks so much Sue. 

See Scrapblog a Writer from the South-West,  for a new blog piece celebrating 10 Devon linked women writers. 

Photo: Old School House, Martinhoe, where H.D. stayed in early 1916.

The poem 'Lilies' appears in the new edition of the The Lake contemporary poetry webzine.

 The poem 'Somewhere' is included in the new poetry collection, Fanfare, (Second Light Publications, 2015, eds. Wendy French and Dilys Wood). The book can be obtained at the Second Light shop.  

I'm thrilled to find that my non-fiction manuscript Voices from the Wildridge; Women Writers in the Devon Landscape has been shortlisted for Impress Prize for New Writers.

I'm very pleased that Wendy French and Dilys Wood, editors of the forthcoming poetry collection Fanfare (Second Light publications) have selected my poem 'Somewhere' for inclusion in the book.

Erbacce press selected a cluster of poems for their long-short-list 2015. 

The poem For those who say there are no more poems, is published online by Agenda poetry.

Two poems,  Room for Folk and I can hear paper ripping, are published by The Lake poetry online.

Autumn 2014 

Since the publication of my poetry collection Tessitura by Shearsman Books I have enjoyed a successful book launch at The Creative Innovation Centre in Taunton. Friends and family came along, braved the seasonal weather, chatted, skimmed the book, sipped a glass of wine and listened to me reading. 

I was asked by two radio stations to come in and have a quick chat about my book and research into Devon's women writers. One was with Darren Daley from Tone FM-listen here, community radio in Taunton.

Then, on 28th January Luch Caise-Dearg of Exeter's Phonic FM asked me to contribute to the morning programme  Mighty Book and then the following week to   Classical Journey. I was able to read work from my book and discuss some of my research with Luch; link below.

Between these two events I shared the Guest Poet Spot at Uncut Poets, Phoenix Arts Centre in Exeter with Alwyn Marriage. 

Exeter University Alumni did a little write-up about my work in their current newsletter.

So, all in all, a busy, noisy month for a normally retreating writerly poet

December 2013

The University of Exeter included a piece - 'Lost female writers inspire poetry collection' - about Tessitura, in Alumni News  - 

Autumn 2013