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RELEASED IN MARCH 2023 — Dónall Dempsey's new collection
THE FOX, THE WHALE AND THE WARDROBE

RRP £10.99  
Pre-release price (sent out in March 2023)
​ £9.99 including postage in UK.

From 23rd October 2022 to 28th February 2023 we have dozens of special offers on our publications. If you're looking for a present for someone who enjoys reading poetry, or some fresh new reading for yourself. browse our discounted books here. We're offering up to 50% reductions on selected collections. And you'll find Book Bundles of 3 pamphlets for £12.00 including postage within the UK. 

The Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize is judged by Mandy Pannett this year. The closing date is 28th February 2023 and all details are on our COMPETITION page now.

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2022  ​VOLE Poetry Collections and Dempsey & Windle perfect-bound poetry pamphlets​ 

Two poems from this week's featured book:
FINDINGS by Harriet Proudfoot

'Harriet Proudfoot's poems are surprising and tender. These poems are so skilfully written .... There is humour, warmth, sadness, and in all of this work there is a fundamental truth – the pain and joy of different experiences that add up to make a compassionate and human soul.'
​ — Wendy French

Godmother
(for Claire at 100 years old)

​I will make you slippers
of leaves from your lemon tree
with softest linings made of love of poetry.
I will knit a patterned waistcoat
of all our favourite jokes,
the ones each of us knows
the other one will like,
the ones I save up for you.
 
I will sew you wrist-bands
of many years of sun
knowing each other’s lives and families;
of pleasures and adventures we have shared:
Brittany, France, Le Maroc, Tunisie.
 
I will embroider gloves for you,
small ones to fit your hands
to keep you from the cold
with orange, terra-cotta, scarlet –
the colours you delight in
and sequins of the colour of the sea.
 
I’ll  find a cedar cone and make a pendant
smelling of pine and opening like a rose;
design a gown of poppies and ranunculus
with a fiery waistband of crocosmia,
first growing in your garden, now in mine.

© Harriet Proudfoot

Reeling in
Warm hand in the imperceptibly
warm stream. Fish visible, some still.
Blue scales, green, pink, swim at their own level. Hand and fish exchange caresses.
In Monterey, little jellyfish
flounce, pulsate, glow.
Dark. Heavy mood and evening light. Ilha Bella. Round a sudden corner, frenzied flashes, speedings – little boats, lights at their masts, twist, drive forward. The night tide is up, brings the fish.
Boats jostle, force their way, compete,
dart across between each other, shout –
just below us. Almost ram the jetty.
Now I’m awake, alive in Brazil.
The Char pours down, flow turned by the sea. Tide comes up, slapping against the sea wall, brings up the big fish and the fishermen.
Each line is anchored, bucking with the waves. Each man has his tent of light, himself
still in the dark. Across the estuary,
an echo, smaller tents of light – diminishing.

​© Harriet Proudfoot