National Poetry Day 2016 - samples & special offers

If you love poetry and you live in the UK, then it's hard (we hope!) to miss that today is National Poetry Day.

This year's theme is messages, and we have two V. Press messages to celebrate the day with - the first is to invite you to enjoy some of our poets' words in the video and poem below and the second is to offer you two special offers...




The video (created for our submissions window earlier this year) features poetry snippets from Jacqui Rowe's Ransom Notes, David O' Hanlon's art brut, Claire Walker's The Girl Who Grew Into a Crocodile, Kathy Gee's Book of Bones, Alex Reed's A Career in Accompaniment and David Calcutt's The Old Man in the House of Bone (with illustrations by Peter Tinkler), as well as prose from Carrie Etter's flash fiction pamphlet Hometown.

New to the 2016 V. Press pamphlet selection is also Nina Lewis' Fragile Houses (with a photographic sequence from S.A. Leavesley), which was launched earlier this week. A sample poem from this pamphlet may be enjoyed at the end of this post.

More information about all of these books can be found by following the links in their titles. (Copies of individual titles can be ordered this way.) However, to mark National Poetry Day, we are offering two special U.K. poetry pamphlet bundles: 

two 'surprise selection'* 2016 V. Press pamphlets for just £10, including P&P in the UK;

three 'surprise selection'* V. Press pamphlets for just £12.50, including P&P in the UK.

These offers run for the rest of this week - so until midnight on Sunday, October 9 - using the paypal links below. (Please take care to choose the correct button!)

2 'surprise selection'* 2016 V. Press pamphlets for £10, including P&P in the UK only:

3 'surprise selection'* V. Press pamphlets for £12.50, including P&P in the UK only:

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY DAY 2016!!!

* Order, then sit back and see which pamphlets we pick out for you!

Ambiguous Answers

Teaching us ‘antonyms’, she asked:

‘What is the opposite of sweet?’

I remember stretching my arm up so high
I had to balance it against my left hand
to stop the aching.

I stared right at her.

I knew this; I knew it.

I was picked third;

‘Chocolate!’ I announced proudly,

being sure of applause.

She didn’t smile.

Looked at me as if she was trying

to work something out.

Some children sniggered;

she reprimanded them.

This made me think I was right after all.

She asked why I thought it was chocolate

and I explained how, with weekly pocket money,

Dad would take us up to the post office
and we could either afford sweets

or chocolate,

but not both.

I didn’t really know ‘sour’,

but the look she gave

demonstrated it perfectly.

Nina Lewis