Description
Book SynopsisSpiritlands invites you into a territory that is at once individual and plural. On the one hand, this is poetry about a personal geography, an eclectic landscape, space in which to be oneself and welcome who one chooses to express hospitality towards; on the other, these are poems all about hope, life and nature, about belonging to the whole world and asserting one’s right to a place and voice in it. The drive of this collection is spirit in the sense of the courage it takes to true to one’s instincts. There is a timelessness to the poems in this book and a sense of what endures. Here is oneness with existence, an appreciation of the universe, a happiness that springs from standing on the globe and the feeling of being a living, breathing soul in it.
Trade ReviewSarah Wardle writes with great humanity and makes A Knowable World of the indignity, frustrations and fear of acute episodes of mental illness. That’s how she manages to get her readers to empathise with all those in the community, both in and out of hospital, who live with the stigma of madness’ – Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger.
Table of Contents9 Song for World 10 The Golden Bough 11 Votive 12 Spiritlands 15 Amina’s Truth 16 Night Nurses 17 First-hand Evidence 18 In the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 19 The Spirit to Solve 20 Human Spirit 22 Pamphleteering 23 At Dove Cottage 24 Schoolgirl to Teacher 25 Mr Wales 26 Careless Whisper 27 Art Therapy 28 On Empty Street 29 City Rain 30 Mill-hands Conversing, 1919 31 Still Life 32 Umbrella 33 US 34 Modern Classics 35 Artistic Preference 36 Letter to the Third Millennium 37 At Home with the Celts 38 Cassie At Six 39 Topspin Theory 40 Lotus 41 Dreamtime 42 Abigail’s Wedding 43 Amanda 44 Blue Rosette 45 Out on the Hustings, 1974 46 Oxfords of the Mind 47 Autumn Effect at Argenteuil 48 Spirit Horse 49 Midlander 52 On Connecting 53 Howling Wolf 54 Soraya and the Spider 57 May Morning 58 May Sunday 59 Reminiscence at the Community Centre 60 Making 61 Kissing in English 62 After Astrup 63 On Woodland
