Instead of a Card: Poems about Walking

This pamphlet is gorgeous both inside and out and can be sent as a substitue for a greeting card, or as a lovely little poetry book in its own right. Cover designers are created by leading contemporary artists and poems hand-picked to speak to every kind of reader.

Pamphlets are supplied with an envelope for posting and a bookmark with space for you to write a special message. 

Poems about Walking

There seems to be a natural connection between walking and poetry. For William Wordsworth, the regular rhythm of walking was a stimulus to writing, and he said that “nine-tenths of my verses have been poured out in the open air.”

This beautiful mini-anthology contains William Wordsworth’s heart-stopping ‘Old Man Travelling’ alongside contemporary poems that capture the delights of a walk with a dear friend and of walking in solitude. There’s a poem about setting off through city streets to find a river and a heron, and another featuring a surprising encounter on the top of Helvellyn. One by one then as a whole, these poems remind us that being on foot is one of the best ways of experiencing the world:

“Sole self I bedded down close as I could
To listen: lapping, birdlife homing, settling …”

from ‘Lake’ by David Constantine

Sasha Dugdale is an award-winning poet and translator – and a keen walker.

Poems by Matthew Clegg, David Constantine, Sasha Dugdale, Choman Hardi, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Stephanie Norgate, MR Peacocke, Stephen Watts, William Wordsworth and Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch.

Cover illustration by Hugh Ribbans.