{"id":1982,"date":"2016-07-28T13:17:36","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T13:17:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn-marriage\/?page_id=1982"},"modified":"2026-04-15T16:37:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T16:37:16","slug":"poetry","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.marriages.me.uk\/alwyn\/writing\/poetry\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I have loved poetry all my life (as I told Exeter’s Bla Bla Show<\/a>), and have been writing it more or less since I learnt to read. This page gives an overview of some of my publications of or relating to poetry, and re-prints a few of my poems that have appeared in magazines and anthologies.
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However, for the avoidance of doubt, I do not consent in any way to generative AI systems ‘scraping’ or copying any of my work or other information available on this site, including blog posts, poems and articles, as this would be a breach of copyright.
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Poetry books<\/span><\/h2>\n

2026<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"From<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tFrom Darkness to Light<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a310 (plus p&p)<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2026<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
\r\n\t

In the spring of 2026, a stunning exhibition of modern religious art was mounted in Guildford, displaying 25 works by such world-class artists as Graham Sutherland, Elisabeth Frink, Ceri Richards and Maggi Hambling. As part of this major event the poet, Alwyn Marriage, was commissioned to write poems to accompany each work of art at the exhibition, and these poems proved so popular that they have now been published as a collection, along with reproductions of the full-colour artworks to which they were a response.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

If you would like to explore some of the art at a deeper level, there are also a dozen longer reflections on some of the paintings which can be reached through the Art UK website<\/a>.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

From Darkness to Light<\/span><\/span><\/em> was published by Oversteps Books on behalf of St Mary's Church, Guildford, on 26 February 2026.
\nISBN 978-1-906856-96-0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Please click here to contact Alwyn<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2025<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Travelling<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tTravelling Light<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a314.99 (plus p&p)<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\t\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2025<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
\r\n\t

In a surprising change of career some years ago, Alwyn Marriage found herself travelling the world as Chief Executive of two international literature and literacy NGOs. Looking back now on that decade of travel, she reflects in poetry on some of the wonderful people she met and projects with which she had the privilege to work. <\/span><\/p>\n

Travelling Light<\/em> won the Hedgehog Prize in the 2024 \u201cProper Poetry Collection Competition\u201d. It was published by <\/span>The Hedgehog Poetry Press <\/em><\/a><\/span>on 14 November 2025.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a> Alwyn Marriage\u2019s travelogue poems hold surprises, bright blessings and sensory discoveries: they are snapshots of global humanity, thriving despite inequality. An intelligent woman is forced to walk on her knees; there is peril and crime, but also a deep joy in the rich welcomes of Africa, Polynesia and South America; and always an appetite for shared song.
\n<\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Jo Bell, Host, The Poetic Licence<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This eye-opening collection, the fruit of global travels on behalf of NGOs in the 1990s, is astonishing in its reach and breadth of subject matter. Alwyn Marriage has braved black ants and cockroaches, sea snakes and crocodiles, and airplane pilots saying prayers, while witnessing stark examples of women\u2019s inequality, and wondering about the pitfalls as well as the benefits of opening their eyes.<\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It contains moments of lyricism in many far and wide places, such as aboard the Trans-Siberian Express, when the only remaining fare is smoked salmon and Russian champagne, and swimming into a cave in Samoa, and gazing outwards from it, at the open sea. This fascinating sequence of traveller\u2019s tales from Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Pacific, and eastern Europe, demanded to be written. They are d<\/span>e<\/span>spatches from a time before the internet and social media somehow narrowed our horizons.
\n<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Greg Freeman, Write Out Loud<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Please click here to contact Alwyn<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2022b<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Possibly<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tPossibly a Pomegranate<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a39.99<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2022b<\/a><\/span>
\tTag:<\/span> Recommended Books<\/a><\/span>
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Possibly a Pomegranate celebrates womankind. From ancient history to the modern day, women stride through its pages. Sometimes they dazzle us with their humour and creativity \u2013 too often overlooked by patriarchal contemporaries. At other times, their fate moves us to tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

How rare it is to read a collection so full of calm wisdom, of a lifetime\u2019s experiences and investigations marshalled with a clear eye for what matters and a well-honed gift for finding the words and forms to share them. This celebration of women ranges from girlhood memories and the tenderness of parenthood to the intimacies and aggravations of later years, from insight into lives in different cultures to a roll call of remarkable women through the ages in which Pope Joan rubs shoulders with Jane Austen. These are satisfying and enriching poems.<\/em>\u00a0 Alasdair Paterson, Uncut Poets<\/span>
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An assured exploration of womanhood, with poems as abundant as the fruits in the pomegranate, resonant with love, birth, death, achievement, happiness and heartbreak. Small, unnoticed moments are brought into focus and held still enough to touch. Marriage turns her sympathetic and good humoured gaze on Sappho, Cleopatra, Lot's wife, Heloise, Hildegard, Mother Julian, Grace Darling, Rosa Parkes as well as her own life, creating a rich panoply of women.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/em>Maggie Butt, poet and novelist<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Pat Edwards in London Grip<\/em><\/a>, September 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Mandy Pannett in Tears in the Fence<\/em><\/a>, October 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Carla Scarano D'Antonio in Write out Loud,<\/em><\/a> November 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Dilys Wood in Artemis<\/em>, November 2022<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Emma Lee in The Journal<\/em><\/a>, November 2022.<\/span><\/p>\n

Review by Sue Kindon in The High Window<\/em>, Spring 2023<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Published by Palewell Press<\/a>. There's a video of the launch here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2022<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Chiara\"<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tChiara<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
eBook:<\/span> \u00a30.99<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\t\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2022<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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In this poem, Alwyn Marriage suggests that St Clare (1194-1253) may be a rather more interesting figure than history suggests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Clare Offreduccio (Chiara) was a normal, healthy and enthusiastic teenager until she was swept off her feet by the dashing young Francis, whom she heard preach with passion. Abandoning her previous life to follow him, she devoted herself to a life of chastity and charity. Images of St Clare in art tend to depict her as an icon of humble obedience and purity, but there may well be more to the story than that.<\/span><\/p>\n

While not wishing to diminish Clare's genuine piety and good works at all, this story suggests that Clare's obvious love of St Francis was more full-blooded and passionate than the official stories have suggested, and that ending up in a convent was not quite what Clare had in mind.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is an ebook published by, and obtainable from, Cut.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2021<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Pandora’s<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tPandora’s Pandemic<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a38.00<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2021<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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Pandora\u2019s Pandemic<\/i> is a vivid and personal account of Covid-19 in real time, in poems written actually as it happened. When Covid-19 swept across the world, it took everyone by surprise. Debilitating illness, unprecedented lockdowns and tragic deaths soon followed. And then the questions arose \u2013 how long would the devastation last and would anyone survive? <\/span>Alwyn Marriage contracted Covid-19 early in the pandemic and that is where this moving collection starts. <\/span><\/p>\n

In these vivid poems, Alwyn tracks the course of her own illness and recovery, the death of her brother and the gradual dawning of new hope. Above all, she asks what we have learnt from this pandemic, and whether the world will ever be the same again. This means that, unusually for a poetry book, because it tells the story of Covid-19, you can read Pandora\u2019s Pandemic<\/i> like a novel, not knowing what the next twist will be. This is poetry that grips you, may make you cry, but will also warm your heart. One reader wrote: The poems are wonderful. You have captured our universal experience of the pandemic, rather as the young war poets did ... It's a huge achievement<\/i>.<\/span><\/p>\n

For more information on <\/span>Pandora's Pandemic<\/span><\/em>, endorsements and unsolicited responses, click on the image of the book cover.<\/span><\/p>\n

There is an interview with Greg Freeman about Pandora's Pandemic<\/em> in Write out Loud<\/em><\/a>, July 2021<\/p>\n

Review by Sue Wallace-Shaddad in London Grip<\/em><\/a>, November 2021.<\/p>\n

Published by SPM Publications<\/a>. To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/span><\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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April 2017<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"In<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tIn the image: Portraits of Mediaeval Women<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a36<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> April 2017<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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This collection of poems brings to life women who, though they lived centuries ago, shared many of the hopes, thoughts and emotions that we experience today. A variety of formal and free verse styles of poetry is used to celebrate the love, courage and occasional defiance of real women. The book was published on 20 April 2017 by Indigo Dreams and was launched in Bergen in June 2017 at an international conference about the lives and writings of mediaeval women<\/a>. For more information, click on the image of the book cover.<\/p>\n

Published by Indigo Dreams<\/a>. To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2014<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Notes<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tNotes from a Camper Van<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a310<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2014<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
\r\n\t

Poems that celebrate the outdoor life: camping, 'cycling, walking, swimming and even driving. For more information, click on the image of the book cover.<\/p>\n

Published by Bellhouse Books<\/a>. To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2012<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"festo:<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tfesto: celebrating winter and Christmas<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a38<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2012<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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Poems from throughout the year, but with a special emphasis on Christmas and winter.<\/p>\n

Though unquestioningly devout, she's refreshingly unorthodox, irreverent, forthright.<\/em>
\nR V Bailey<\/p>\n

Excellent and engaging poems.<\/em> William Oxley<\/p>\n

Published by Oversteps Books<\/a>. To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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2007<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Touching<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tTouching Earth<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\u00a38<\/span><\/span><\/div>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 2007<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
\r\n\t

A collection of poems, arranged in five sections: Energy; Other lives; On being a woman; Open air; and the Christmas story.<\/p>\n

Six months after this book was published, Alwyn was invited to take over as Managing Editor of Oversteps. For more information, click on the image of the book cover.<\/p>\n

Published by Oversteps Books<\/a>. To order a copy, please use the \"Contact Alwyn<\/a>\" link.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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1990<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"New<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tNew Christian Poetry<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\r\n\t\t\tGenre:<\/span> 1990<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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For a while this anthology was Collins\u2019 best-selling book, and I still get requests for copies. Unfortunately I have none left, and the opportunity for a re-print was lost during the series of publishing takeovers in the 1990s. There are sometimes copies for sale on Amazon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, in general, copies are now like gold-dust, so if you have one that you don\u2019t want, please let me know, so that I can pass it on to someone who does.<\/p>\n

Published by Collins (now HarperCollins)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

Review by Thelma Laycock<\/strong> in the Leeds-based poetry magazine Aire<\/i>ings<\/b><\/i>, no 22:<\/span><\/p>\n

Refreshingly this anthology bursts upon the British poetry scene which seems to suffer from a dearth of Christian writing. Alwyn Marriage draws her collection together from two hundred poems chosen from eight and a half thousand received after publicising the anthology to churches and magazines worldwide.<\/span><\/p>\n

New Christian Poetry<\/i> is not a denominational \u2018churchy\u2019 collection. The editor presents the poetry in its widest sense, dividing it into eleven sections: The Natural World, Place, People, World Issues, Art, The Bible, Times and Festivals, Experience of God, On Being a Christian, Praise and Prayer, Bread and Wine, thus expressing that Christians are not apart from the world but are very much thrown into the turmoil of it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Memorable among the poems for me is Jean Naylor\u2019s \u2018Contemplation\u2019 (Experience of God) with its Hopkinsian imagery:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI saw Him in the crushed crimson\u2019s dawn appearing \u2026
\nHe comes riding
\nStallion-drawn, whirl-wheeled, fleet
\nSword-buckling King, re-armed in glory
\nI fall, love adoring at his feet.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Presenting a contrast to that is Rosie Watson\u2019s \u2018Red Nose Day\u2019 (World Issues) with its comic irony:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWould God wear a nose for such a cause
\nChrist the Clown
\nour fool for God\u2019s sake
\nthe only one
\nto wear a nose on red nose day
\n<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Good Friday
\nfor the sake of Ethiopia
\nYes, and much more.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Catherine Fisher closes the section on Art with her universal poem, \u2018Judas\u2019, in which the poet sees:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 a roundel here of Christ in Hell,
\nembracing a man waist-deep in fiery glass
\nwhose medieval face turns up as if in shock \u2026
\nPerhaps it is something in the kiss that makes me
\nwonder, if they meant it to be you.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The poems in this collection have a very high standard and much could be said about the individual poems. I can only recommend that people buy it and read it. It is a good resource for worship and for teaching as well as for personal reflection. It is excellent and have not come across anything quite like it. I am glad to have this anthology on my bookshelves; it has presence.
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 <\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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1977<\/div>
<\/div><\/header>
\"Beautiful<\/a><\/div>

\r\n\tBeautiful Man<\/a>\r\n<\/h2>
\r\n\tAuthor:<\/span> Alwyn Marriage<\/a><\/span>
\t\tGenre:<\/span> 1977<\/a><\/span>
\t<\/div>
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A short collection of Alwyn Marriage's early poetry, including the fourteen part longer poem 'Epiphany'.<\/p>\n

Published by Outposts Publications. Currently out of print.<\/p>\n More info \u2192<\/a><\/div><\/div>

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Magazines and journals<\/span><\/h2>\n

There are many publications that are either dedicated to publishing poetry or that include\u00a0poetry in their pages, and my poetry appears regularly in these. As magazines and journals\u00a0have a short shelf-life, it is worth reproducing some of the poems in full.<\/span><\/p>\n

more details<\/div>
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