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Sunflowers

Books

I Left My Hair in
San Francisco

JOINT WINNER GEOFF STEVENS MEMORIAL POETRY PRIZE 2021

There’s nothing like a pandemic to reveal the vulnerability of humans and to pinpoint our humble place within the living world: ‘Maybe I’m no different from these sheep/teetering on the blade of a steaming volcano’.

   All that sets us apart is language, but we often fail to communicate. A trip to the hairdresser ends badly. A teenager weeps over a French menu. Despite our human fallibility we are like sunflowers – endlessly resilient, bright with hope.

Indigo Dreams Publishing

ISBN 978-1-912876-67-9

Paperback, May 2022

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"Here are poems that will take you by the hand, dance you in the light until you too are ‘caught in a fall of honeylight’. Here are songs written in the rhythm of praise where joy is found in the colourful feast of life."

Alison Lock

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Further reviews

"Lucky the reader who stumbles on this debut collection. Here they will find balm for the spirit, succour for the soul. Sallie Durham’s poetry is wistful and gentle with tinges of melancholy and, very occasionally, a hint of the macabre. Her great achievement is to conjure a feeling for the being of things, whether it is her mother’s cook book or sunflowers – one of her favourite subjects. In one poem, Old Sunflowers, they speak of themselves with pride and stoicism: ‘we, who were once goddesses / suddenly old dames in hard hats.’

    The connection between females and flowers is apparent in one of the best poems in the volume, Iris, whose life cycle ‘recall[s] the lives of women / our weeping and our bleeding disguised in fine attire.’ Durham’s nature poems are quite different from the moralising Wordsworth and the melodramatic Ted Hughes in that she insists on identity and kinship, even with the humble The Crane Fly whose stumbling dance of death proves as much a work of art as a poem, a defiant gesture against inevitable extinction: ‘slumped down on the windowsill / his last two fingers up in a V.’

    The poems about love and family are deeply touching. Ladders will resonate with anyone who is, or has been, in a long relationship. Vigil, a poem about Durham’s dying father, is full of tender, piercing images and uses rhythm to great effect, repeating the same words at the beginning of the poem at the end but changing the earlier chugging sound to staccato sobs. The tonal range is impressive from the comic title poem to the slightly manic Finland but it’s the imagery which stays in the mind. It is consistently striking and inventive: ‘The clouds continue to bank their platinum.’ One can only hope there is more to come from this new kid on the block."

About the reviewer

Gary Day is a retired English lecturer. He is the author or editor of a dozen books including a two volume history of modern British poetry. He had a column in the Times Higher for a number of years and has been actively involved in amateur theatre for many years.

“The hum of the English countryside runs through these poems. By turns playful, clear, elegant and haunting they observe family and landscape, love and loss with a sure eye. Who are we, Durham asks, and how do we live in these difficult times? Here the snowdrop appears ‘green-inked, three-winged, secret as the moon.’ A beautiful and finely wrought collection.”

Janet Sutherland

"This is a wonderful, wide-ranging first collection from a fine writer – some of the poems made me laugh out loud, others are poignant, even heartbreaking – whatever the subject matter Durham's sensitivity and astute powers of observation shine through. As well as the lead poem of the title, and the ones about her family, I particularly loved those inspired by nature; these elegantly draw you into a magical, almost intimate realm as she beautifully evokes and contemplates what many of us wouldn't give a second thought to. As a result, we see and appreciate the world afresh through her thoughtful eyes. "

Jane Tyrrell-Smedley, Amazon Review

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Looking Out Peering In

An anthology (Oct 2022)

Covid, Lockdowns and everything that came with it was an odd time to live through and perhaps it will take decades to gain the perspective to really contextualise it. But there is a lot to be said for recording what people felt that lived through it in many forms and so we ran a competition to see.

    In our ‘Looking Out, Peering In’ Competition, we wanted to take the time to look beyond the obvious and see what really mattered to people beyond the headlines and asked them to share their personal perspective rather than just their daily responses.

   ‘Looking Out, Peering In’ asked poets to use a metaphorical window to look out at the world or peer into their lives and share with us their feelings, ideas, conclusions or dreams for a different world.

   Many, many poets took part and it was incredibly difficult to select a representative sample of their work for this, most special of poetry anthologies.

Hedgehog Press

ISBN-13 : 978-1-913499-85-3

Paperback, October 2022

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Including poetry from:

  1. Alison Lock

  2. Anthony Paticchio

  3. Brian McManus

  4. Ceinwen E Cariad Haydon

  5. Darren J Beaney

  6. Eileen Carney Hulme

  7. Elizabeth Barton

  8. Emma Kemp

  9. Gavin Bourke

  10. Kate Copeland

  11. Nina Parmenter

  12. Olga Dermott-Bond

  13. Oz Hardwick

  14. Sadie Maskery

  15. Sallie Durham

  16. Sam Smith

  17. Sarah Connor

  18. Sharon Larkin

  19. Susan E Darlington

  20. Zoe Karathanasi

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Voices for the Silent

An anthology (Oct 2022)

An anthology to support the work of The League Against Cruel Sports, featuring the winners of the Indigo Wild Nature Poetry Competition, 'Voices for the Silent' speaks out for the silent creatures in our countryside. It celebrates the natural world and includes environment issues.

“It is our collective and individual responsibility to preserve and tend to the world in which we all live.” ~ Dalai Lama

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