Two poets reached milestones on their poetic careers on Monday night at the Poetry Cafe in London when they launched their first collections. Rebecca Hubbard read from The Garden of Shadow and Delight, followed by fellow Cinnamon Press poet Frances Spurrier, who read poems from The Pilgrim’s Trail.

In a Poetry Cafe basement that was bursting at the seams, Rebecca Hubbard, who is a gardener, read a number of prose-poems from her collection, put together during a creative writing MA course at Brunel University.  The collection deals with five themes in the garden, and observes fragility and change.  

Frances Spurrier, pictured, who is Write Out Loud’s reviews editor, began with three poems that reflect her south Wales roots, including the striking ‘Gospel Pass’, with its journey undertaken by  crusaders. ‘Take the War Memorial’ is about thieves who pinch the local bronze plaque, necessitating additional security precautions: “Breathe again, grieve again.” Her collection conveys a strong sense of English and European history and geography, as well as myth and legend, as in poems such as ‘The return of Mrs Odysseus’.

The reading was shortened a little, because of the heat generated in the basement by such a packed audience. In an article for Write Out Loud, Frances has spoken about the work that went into producing her first collection. Well done to both poets, for arriving at this exhilarating moment.  

Greg Freeman  

Background: the road to publishing your first collection