singing into darkness by Joy McCall and Liam Wilkinson
A collection of responsive tanka and ryuka triptychs.
price £11 INCLUDING postage (UK & US mailing address)
price £14 INCLUDING postage (EUROPE & CANADA mailing address)
price £17 INCLUDING postage (OTHER mailing address)
Praise
Okay. The “mostly quiet and hermit-like scribbler of small poems” from South Yorkshire and the hedgerow, woods and river witch of Norwich have teamed up. I’m ready. I’ve met these two before. This will be good, I think, opening their new book, singing into darkness, totally unprepared to be stunned! This is synergy at its best, when the sum of the whole is greater than its parts. This is no mere mingling of two fine voices, this is a whole new song sung by a whole new and single voice. One that will leave you half-drunk as if on acorn coffee and red wine.
—Larry Kimmel, editor of Winfred Press and co-editor of the cherita: your storybook journal
The poet Marianne Moore said poetry is not just speech but rather an attempt to listen and respond. Herein lies the beauty of Joy McCall and Liam Wilkinson’s singing into darkness. Something magical occurs. Their poetic collaboration renders poetry all the more inclusive and true. Here are poems that deserve to be read and re-read. singing into darkness is a gem of a book to be grateful for.
—Lynda Monahan, author of A Slow Dance in the Flames, What My Body Knows and Verge.
It was my pleasure to introduce Liam Wilkinson and Joy McCall to each other. Both English, both steeped in the localness of their lives, yet with souls open to other worlds both material and spiritual, they have become regular correspondents. Quite often I have found their responsive sequences of tanka or ryuka in my mailbox, sometimes formally submitted for publication, and sometimes just because that’s the way poets talk. Now they have compiled a book of tanka and ryuka and published them so that anyone with an open heart and willing ear can eavesdrop upon these most intimate of conversations. If you are a stranger, settle in comfortably because they have tales to tell you. If you are a friend, you already know you are welcome.”
—M. Kei, editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka
wildflower poetry press 