A new poetry pamphlet from HedgehogPoetryPress due out March 2025
To buy a signed copy of this pamphlet please email the author giving your address at margaretroyall@icloud.com
or use the quick PayPal link : https://paypal.me/RoyallMargaret?country.x=GB&locale.x=en_GBw
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Introduction to Hemlock & Honey – a personal statement
As I approach my three score years and ten I have been thinking back over the past decades and analysing the memorable events that stand out for me most, reflecting on those that have exerted the greatest influence on my life. Indeed, there have been traumatic times, when life was turned upside down and huge changes were forced upon me. On the other hand I now understand, with the benefit of hindsight, that these have encouraged positive changes and led to hobbies, interests and new friendships that have greatly enriched my life. Without the trauma there could not be the rapture! In these poems I have therefore tried to explore both facets of life. Part One details the negatives and Part Two the positives, thus aiming to provide a balanced overview. I do not seek the sympathy card or see myself as a victim, nor do I want to suggest that life now is totally perfect. It’s a case of moderation in all things.
I have chosen the sonnet form in many poems, having always enjoyed writing in form and particularly using sonnets. Recently I took a course with distinguished poet Anna Saunders on writing sonnets for contemporary times, which I greatly enjoyed. This then naturally followed through into my latest work. It has been a huge challenge to write in this concise poetic form that uses rhyme, but to do it in a non-intrusive way. I hope that in some small way I have succeeded and brought the reader with me on my journey. My wish is to demonstrate that despite life throwing us curve balls, with patient determination we can find solutions, coping strategies that enable us to emerge as stronger, more hopeful and better human-beings.
Margaret Royall
Endorsement of Hemlock and Honey
In Hemlock and Honey we are introduced to traumas ‘burying themselves….worm-like in salted skin’ and Margaret Royall questions whether this is a ‘Gift or curse?’ Powerful sonnets and other forms give moving and honest accounts: the traumatic deaths of both parents and others close and the harrowing challenges that follow. We are taken through dark childhood memories, illnesses and a longing for peace, at home and in the world. In the section: ‘Honey’, the joy starts to return. We are eyes open in the natural world, where ‘trees spread guardian wings.’ This is a stunning collection you will find yourselves in.
Julie Stevens
Hemlock and Honey, Margaret Royall
Margaret Royall’s poetry probes the deep recesses of our souls in the poisonous hemlock of human experience as well as the sweet honey of redemption. Here is a modern Labours of Hercules in the challenges that punctuate our lives, calling us to witness, accept and adapt. Beyond those labours we taste the sweetness of the world and find our own ‘heart-home’, sculpting a restorative beauty and grace in the spirit of connection and renewal.
This collection reflects tenderly on the multiple triggers that shock, repulse and etch us: point-sharp moments of chronic illness, loss and grief, and the disconsolations of this world. And though cut, disfigured or defined we can be freed to immerse ourselves in the warm embrace of sense-laden encounters, wrapped in the embrace of life’s wellspring and our new wings of wonder.
This is an appealing and resonant collection with a vulnerable and sensitive heart that is fully deserving of a wide readership.
Glenn Barker, writer and reviewer. Twitter/X: @Glenn_A_Barker
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Margaret Royall 