The Chronicles of Narnia

Somewhere, there’s another world
behind a door you’ve been knocking on
since you were young.  

It’s not that you want to escape your life –
just that somewhere, very close by,
in a room you’ve never explored,    

there’s a forest where snow falls
in the warm light cast by a lamp.
The moon hangs in a clear Northern sky,   

the stream is frozen.
There are thousands and thousands of stars.
You don’t need a key, or a ring   

and there’s no point in knocking:
every heart is a secret door.
One day, you’ll walk right through   

and you’ll be there.
Perhaps a shadow in the trees will approach you.
You’ll feel powerful and brave and very small.

Then your heart will be lion and mountains,
an acre of blue flowers blooming
and you’ll stride into a world   

you’ve always believed in
because there was always a river
and bright moss and birdsong   

and stars – oh my love
though I didn’t know how to reach you
all my life, I knew you were there.  
 

by Clare Shaw

Three pieces of news from the Poetry Centre: our latest podcast is now live and features our colleague Dr Dinah Roe, whose work on Christina Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelites we have been showcasing this semester. In this episode, Dinah discusses three poems by Rossetti, considers how her view of the poet has changed during Dinah’s time working with her poetry and prose and in the course of writing a book about her family, and how Rossetti’s experience as a carer affected her writing. You can listen to the podcast via our website or find it via the usual podcast providers: just search for ‘Oxford Brookes Poetry Centre Podcast’.

We’re really pleased to say that our pamphlet press, ignitionpress, has been shortlisted for this year’s Michael Marks Publishers’ Award! The winners will be announced tomorrow, 7 December. To find out more and to register for the event, visit the Michael Marks website.

We recently announced the winners of our International Poetry Competition, judged by Will Harris. You can find out who won and who was shortlisted in the EAL and Open categories on our website, where you can also register to attend our online awards event tomorrow, 7 December. Everyone is welcome to attend! You’ll be able to hear from the winners in both categories and also from the judge, Will Harris, who will talk about judging the competition and give a short reading from his work.

‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ is copyright © Clare Shaw, 2021. It is reprinted from Christmas Movies: A Double Bill of Festive Poems (Candlestick Press, 2021) by permission of Candlestick. You can read more about the pamphlet and buy a copy on the Candlestick website.

Clare Shaw was born in Burnley. She has published three collections with Bloodaxe: Straight Ahead (2006), Head On (2012) and Flood (2018). Her fourth collection Towards a General Theory of Love was awarded a Northern Writers’ Award and will be published by Bloodaxe in 2022. Clare is an Associate Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, a co-director of the Kendal Poetry Festival and a regular tutor for the Arvon Foundation.

You can find out more about Clare’s work on her website and follow her on Twitter.

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press based in Nottingham and has been publishing its sumptuous ‘instead of a card’ poetry pamphlets since 2008. Subjects range from Birds and Clouds to Tea, Kindness, Home and Sheep. Candlestick Press titles are stocked by chain and independent bookshops, as well as by galleries, museums and garden centres. They can also be ordered online via the Candlestick website where you can find out more about the full range of titles. In 2019 Candlestick sold over 100,000 pamphlets, supporting its nominated charities with donations equivalent to around 49% of pre-tax net profits.

You can follow Candlestick on Twitter and find the press on Facebook.

Copyright information: please note that the copyrights of all the poems displayed on the website and sent out on the mailing list are held by the respective authors, translators or estates, and no work should be reproduced without first gaining permission from the individual publishers.