Delighted to report that in addition to our existing distribution network, we’re now also trading via Faire, the online B2B wholesale marketplace that connects independent retailers with independent brands. We hope this means that the Candlesticks can reach even more lovely shops and shoppers around the world, especially in the US.
And there’s a fantastic sign-up deal for stockists via this link: /direct/candlestickpress with free shipping for a year and 50% discount!
#giftshop #bookshop #insteadofacard #independentretailers #independentshops
NEW! URGENT POEMS FOR A FRAGILE PLANET
Prodigal Flowers: Ten Ecopoems by Mario Petrucci
This compelling single-author pamphlet – to be launched on 5th June to mark World Environment Day – features new poems by ecopoet and environmentalist Mario Petrucci. The pamphlet is the first in a series to be published by Candlestick Press in 2026/27, showcasing new work by some of the UK’s leading contemporary poets.
These poems by ecopoet and environmentalist Mario Petrucci offer a series of remarkable encounters with the natural world. They question and warn, while finding wonder and beauty amid the sobering realities of climate change. The flowers may seem “prodigal” but it’s their vulnerability that sharpens the poet’s attention.
We look through both ends of the telescope to view the intricate lives of plants and insects as vividly as the abstract grandeur of the cosmos. Sometimes the two come together; here, rare seeds are akin to stars:
“Each tiny face has its look:
the black-shiny. The varnishy-brown.
The specks too – it’s like telling stars
apart, rolling them thumb to palm.”
from ‘Seedwoman’
The vigour of Petrucci’s language shows us the world as a place that is intensely, though precariously, alive. He is a scientist as well as a poet, and these heady encounters are energised by that juxtaposition.
“Mario’s poems pull no punches – they will intrigue, delight, terrify and provoke at every level of emotion, learning and action.” The Poetry Society (World Environment Day).
Pamphlet link /pamphlet/prodigal-flowers-ten-ecopoems/
Register for the online launch event on 5th June here /events/
Read more about Prodigal Flowers and ecopoetry in a Q&A with Mario Petrucci on our blog here: /blog/qa-with-mario-petrucci/
#ecopoems #ecopoetry #environment #poems #poetry
NEW! TEN POEMS ABOUT BLUEBELLS
One of the most beloved of British wildflowers, bluebells are a brief glory in our ancient woodlands. They appear in April or May and dazzle us for a short while with their scent and colour, making us think of other blue places such as the sea and the sky. No wonder they are also beloved of poets.
The ten poems gathered here offer heady encounters with bluebells in woods, on hillsides and under hedges. They reflect the fact that even if we go looking for them, bluebells always manage to astonish us:
“there! – a flood of sky in the under-wood,
thousands of cloudless blues on strings.
Wait for a wind to play them. Wait for them to ring –”
from ‘Bluebells’ by Cheryl Pearson
This is an anthology to read when the bluebells are in full bloom – and to return to later in the year when we long to be reminded of the intoxicating beauty of those glorious days of spring.
Selected and introduced by Katharine Towers.
Poems by John Clare, Stanley Cook, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Helen Dunmore, Sylvia Kantaris, Patrick Kavanagh, Cheryl Pearson, Anne Stevenson, Charles Tomlinson and Katharine Towers.
Cover illustration by Jane Burn.
#bluebells #bluebell #poem #poetry #poetrycommunity
TEN POEMS ABOUT BLACKBIRDS
Blackbirds are one of our most beautiful songsters. There’s nothing quite as transporting as hearing one sing from a treetop or rooftop on a summer evening – they appear to have all the time in the world:
“But the blackbird still will sing,
Making the heart of the dark wood thrill
With the notes that come from his golden bill…”
from ‘The Blackbird’s Song’ by George Walter Thornbury
These poems celebrate the heart-stopping beauty of the song, together with the perky boldness of a bird that we so often see hopping across our parks and gardens. Perhaps it’s because we’re familiar with them that blackbirds seem to have something to say about our human lives.
This richly varied selection will delight anyone who loves blackbirds and the irresistible music of their song.
Selected and introduced by Di Slaney.
Poems by Moniza Alvi, John Clare, Gillian Clarke, Miriam Darlington, Phyllis Drayson, Wendy Pratt, Angela Readman, RS Thomas, George Walter Thornbury and Humbert Wolfe.
Illustrations by Sam Cannon.
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-blackbirds/
#blackbirds #birds #poem #poetry #blackbirdsofinstagram
TEN POEMS ABOUT ALLOTMENTS
Having an allotment isn’t the same as having a vegetable patch in the garden. There’s something about the sense of shared endeavour – the fair exchange of cups of tea and know-how – that means an allotment is not just a place but also a state of mind.
The selection features poems that revel in the good-natured competition that inevitably arises: who has grown the biggest onion and whose weeds are most to be frowned upon. There are also slugs and worms, aching backs and roughened hands – all seasoned by the heady tang of manure.
But the abiding spirit is the pleasure that comes from tending a small patch of earth, the deep joy afforded by taking part in the year’s repeating patterns of planting and harvesting:
“She places each first early
on its smelly bed. Delicate as eggs they sit
until he spades the soil over. Buried treasure.”
from ‘Allotment’ by Vivienne Tregenza
Selected and introduced by Di Slaney.
Poems by Marie-Louise Eyres, Marian Griffin, Ramona Herdman, Beag Horn, Vanessa Lampert, John Lancaster, Vivienne Tregenza, Zoë Walkington, Peter Wallis and Rob Walton.
Cover illustration by Diana Croft.
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-allotments/
#allotmentuk #allotmentsofinstagram #allotmentlife🌱 #poetry #poems
Celebrations of life outdoors – whether with our hands in the earth or listening to birdsong – Ten Poems about Allotments and Ten Poems about Blackbirds out today!
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-allotments/
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-blackbirds/
#allotmentsofinstagram #blackbirds #allotments #poem #poems
Thank you to all the poets who entered our competition. We received a huge variety of interpretations of the Christmas Party theme and, as always, enjoyed reading the submissions.
We eventually settled on five wonderful poems, all of which will appear in our festive title Christmas Party to be published in September.
Many congratulations to our quintet of splendid winners:
Aruna Stannard – ‘The First Christmas Party’
DA Prince – ‘Long-tailed tits’
Kristina Diprose – ‘Meet me at Nakatomi Plaza’
Marie-Louise Eyres – ‘Ingrate at the Christmas Party’
Penny Sharman – ‘Sardines at Uncle Jacks, Xmas, 1959’
These poems will be published alongside five brand new poems from Andre Bagoo, Jeanette Burton, Jonathan Edwards, Lorraine Mariner and Michael Pedersen. We can’t wait to launch this title, guaranteed to be full of effervescence and the spirit of celebration!
/competitions/
🎄🎉🍾😊🎄 #christmas #christmasparty #poetry #poetrycommunity #poetsofinstagram
IN MEMORIAM – NEW EDITION
The quiet company of words – poems chosen to comfort and console.
This revised third edition of our much-loved anthology contains poems of bereavement selected for their beauty and the sense of consolation that they offer. There are poems that question and mourn, alongside others that accept the inevitability of death and give thanks for a life well lived.
Poems old and new reflect on the transforming experience of losing someone we love. For those arranging a funeral or simply seeking the quiet company of words to help them through the long process of grieving, this varied and reflective selection is sure to offer comfort:
“I lie here in a riot of sunlight
Watching the day break and the clouds flying.
Everything is going to be all right.”
from ‘Everything is Going to Be All Right’ by Derek Mahon
Selected by Di Slaney and Katharine Towers.
Poems by Robert Burns, Emily Dickinson, Sasha Dugdale, Lorna Goodison, Thomas Hardy, Matthew Hollis, Jackie Kay, Faith Lawrence, Derek Mahon, Sue Millard, Adrian Mitchell, Corinne Roosevelt Robinson, Christina Rossetti, William Shakespeare, Penelope Shuttle, Edna St Vincent Millay, Mark Twain, Anna Wigley and Jeremy Young.
Cover illustration by Alexandra Buckle.
/pamphlet/in-memoriam-twenty-poems-of-bereavement/
#inmemoriam #poems #bereavement #grief #poetry
New and available now!
TEN POEMS ABOUT OWLS
Owls are birds that fascinate us, seeming to exist at the shadowy margins of our human lives. More often heard than seen, their nocturnal cries can be both haunting and exhilarating.
These ten poems celebrate the elusiveness of owls, as well as the thrill of a rare sighting; when a little owl is spotted on the branch of an olive tree in Greece, it looks more like a “small clay jar” than a bird. In another poem, the near-silent flight of a barn owl offers a moment of spellbound intimacy:
“If breath was any animal, it’s this.
Glide and hush-sweep
across the close-by fields of grain.”
from ‘Barn Owl on Newburgh Road’ by Niall Campbell
The poems remind us that an encounter with any wild creature is a gift – and that meeting an owl in a poem can be every bit as magical as meeting one in the woods.
Poems by Niall Campbell, Daniel Webster Davis, Emily Dickinson, Victoria Gatehouse, Ian Humphreys, Gregory Leadbetter, Rob Miles, Angela Readman, AE Stallings and Edward Thomas.
Cover illustration by Niki Bowers.
Donation to The Owls Trust.
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-owls/
#owl #owls #poem #poems #poetry
TEN POEMS ABOUT DAFFODILS
The most famous flowers in poetry must surely be William Wordsworth’s daffodils, expressing the surprise and delight of stumbling upon unexpected beauty.
And being beautiful is something that daffodils just can’t help… In this mini anthology we encounter a whole host of varieties, from “dainty white dancers” to “saffron flouncers”. Over and again the poems celebrate the flower’s gloriously jaunty yellow-ness, which seems to spell hope at a time when spring has barely got going – sometimes even in mid-winter:
“They wait for me
holding out the sun like a gold watch
against the shortest day…”
from ‘Winter Daffodils’ by Phoebe Hesketh
The poems are guaranteed to gladden the heart, encouraging us to pay attention to the everyday splendour of this much-loved herald of spring.
Poems by Jason Allen-Paisant, Moya Cannon, Gillian Clarke, Isobel Dixon, UA Fanthorpe, Phoebe Hesketh, Clinton Scollard, David Scott, Dorothy Wordsworth and William Wordsworth.
Cover illustration by Jane Burn.
/pamphlet/ten-poems-about-daffodils/
#daffodils🌼 #daffodil #poem #poems #poetry
Chocolate Detective X Candlestick Press Giveaway
A chance to win a £50 bundle worth of Chocolate Detective eggs, beautifully paired with a @candlestickpress poetry collection devoted to chocolate.
UK delivery only.
To enter: 1. Follow @TheChocolateDetective 2. 🤍Like this post 3.Comment: tell us your favourite chocolate style (and who you’d share it with)
Want better odds? Tag a fellow chocolate devotee for bonus entries. One tag per comment, up to five total!
Ends 11:59pm (UK time) Monday 23 February 2026.
Winner will be revealed on Tuesday 25 February 2026.
Let’s hear your chocolate confessions
A little excerpt from candlestick press:
This luscious mini-anthology celebrates preferences for milk or plain, pralines
or fondants, rich truffles or the sweetest hot chocolate drinks. Anyone who
has ever craved chocolate will identify with poems that explore its sensuous
aspects – taste, texture, mouthfeel – in an intensity akin to love.
And if chocolate is like love, then these poems explore the depth and shape of
that love:
“Knotted smoke, dark punch
of earth and night and leaf,
for a taste of you
any woman would gladly
crumble to ruin.”
from ‘Chocolate’ by Rita Dove
