Jane's Writing Shed.

During the last couple of days I've bought several secondhand poetry books from a Christian Aid Book Sale and an Oxfam bookshop in Edinburgh. I do read poetry on line and I purchase new poetry collections in book form and online but I get just as excited about reading new poems by finding familiar and unfamiliar authors in unexpected places. One of my new/old books is Ten Women Poets of Greece' edited by Dino Siotis with an introduction by Katerina Anghelaki-Rooke, published by Wire Press, San Francisco 1982. Anghelaki-Rooke says in her introduction,' In Greece the traces of the relationship between survival and poetry are still somehow fresh and recognisable.This is especially true of Greek women poets. There is a well known paradox in poetry: the poem is both the instrument and the end result of self-knowledge. Without having plunged into yourself you cannot come up with a poem....The Greek woman poet has always desperately tried to combine her creativity with the idea

A poem praising all the seedlings, fruit bushes and trees growing on my allotment especially the Crab Apple tree. And all the lovely invertebrates too especially the ladybirds. Malus Golden Hornet On the way to the allotment fallen white blossom fills the pavement cracks. Down on the plot ladybirds have emerged and are exploring the dark soil and damp grass. Next to the blackberry and currants the newly planted crab-apple has new leaves and buds of pink blossom tight as popcorn. As I cut off the tie and remove the stake I'm thinking it's up to you now tree, don't be waspish, wow us with flowers, sting us with your sassy fruit and grow like a rocket.