And I sigh for the days of the veil and the vow.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon

Not for that City

Not for that city of the level sun,

Its golden streets and glittering gates ablaze –

The shadeless, sleepless city of white days,

White nights, or nights and days that are as one –

We weary, when all said, all thought, all done,

We strain our eyes beyond this dusk to see

What, from the threshold of eternity

We shall step into. No, I think we shun

The splendour of that everlasting glare,

The clamour of that never-ending song.

And if for anything we greatly long,

It is for some remote and quiet stair

Which winds to silence and a space of sleep

Too sound for waking and for dreams too deep.

Charlotte Mew

About the Poets

Fleur Adcock (born 1934)

Fleur moved from her native New Zealand to England during the Second World War, returning to settle in London in 1963. She has been writing since she was five, working as a librarian before becoming a full-time writer. Fleur has published ten poetry collections as well as a collected edition, and often gives voice to the powerless in her work. She was awarded an OBE in 1996 and the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2006.

Londoner is here.

Effie Afton (1829–1887)

Effie’s real name was Sarah Elizabeth Harper Monmouth. She also wrote sensational stories under the name Kate Caper and prim Sunday School stories as Sophia Homespun. Entrusted with the decoration of a local New Hampshire church to raise charitable funds, Sarah went the extra mile and embroidered elaborate trappings over a period of years. She gave dramatic tours of the famous ‘Worsted Church’, which was even featured in the New York Times. Having lost her fortune in an unwise investment, Sarah published a frugal 1880 memoir, Living on Half a Dime a Day – though she always reserved some of her meagre income for books.

untitled poem – on travel is here.

Gillian Allnutt (born 1949)

Gillian has published nine collections of poetry. Nantucket and the Angel and Lintel were both shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot Prize, she won the Northern Rock Foundation Writer’s Award in 2005 and she received a Cholmondeley Award in 2010. Her retrospective How the Bicycle Shone (2007) was a Poetry Book Society Special Commendation. Since 1983 she has taught creative writing in universities, schools and adult education centres. Gillian held a Royal Literary Fund Fellowship at Newcastle and Leeds Universities (2001–2003) and held a writing residency with Freedom From Torture, working with asylum seekers (2009–2010). She received The Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2017. A photograph of Gillian is on display at the National Portrait Gallery.

Ode is here.

Ruth Awolola (born 1998)

Ruth is a British born Nigerian Jamaican student, youth worker, sister, daughter, friend and poet. She has been performing poetry since 2015 and has performed up and down the UK, exploring themes of travelling, race, family and space. In 2018 Rising Stars, an anthology of poetry from new poets, including Ruth, was Highly Commended at the CLiPPA ceremony. Ruth is training to be a full-time educator.