Ragged Raven, edited by Bob Mee and Janet Murch, is a poetry press based in Warwickshire. The press demonstrates the versatility common to smaller presses; not only do they publish individual collections (such as National Poetry Competition winner Christopher James’ first collection The Invention of Butterfly), but they also run an international poetry competition and publish annual anthologies. These anthologies in particular have become the marker of Mee and Murch’s editorial flair – having been published for over 10 years and including an expansive list of over 200 up and coming voices.
First in the podcast showcase of this press is Angela France, whose second collection Occupation was published by Ragged Raven. You can hear her read 5 poems on PoetCasting (including the one which follows) and you can buy Occupation from Ragged Raven via Paypal, cheque or International Money Order.
A Country Road Becomes a Prayer
Angela France
The road reclaims itself at night, shrugs off its dusty
daytime, revels in darker colours, deeper shadows.
Hedges and trees form black walls, squeeze my car
forwards, snap branches and twigs into focus before
my leading beam as if limned in light from within.
Houses bloom on a bend: at once more solid and less
real than reason, At my right shoulder, the full moon strobes
through the trees to touch me with a benediction – now
and now, and now. Where I’ve been fades to doesn’t matter
and where I’m going recedes to I don’t care. The road
unfolds before me as a blessing, a prayer.
(Taken from the Ragged Raven website)
Some of the many poets published in the past 11 years in the annual anthologies who also appear on PoetCasting are Simone Mansell Broome, Jeremy Duffield and Matt Merritt. With the anthologies composed of competition entries and invited contributions, I’m sure there will be more poets included on PoetCasting who have been published by Ragged Raven in the future.
The next PoetCasting blog will be from the Writers Industries Conference in Loughborough on Saturday. If you are in the East Midlands you might like to attend. If you can’t, you can follow the hash tag #WIC2010 on Twitter, or wait for my round up!
Posted on March 3rd, 2010 by alexpryce
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