Ten Poems about Rubbish

A load of rubbish? These poems are very far from being that! Always surprising, this selection finds that rubbish is far more than merely stuff we don't want any more. There's a poem in which a swing-bin complete with peelings and old tea-bags becomes a vivid still life and a moving elegy when a family home is being cleared after a death. Elsewhere, mud-larking explores how what's been discarded can still give us pause for thought: "The stones, nails, shoes, this one old mitten;they all could have some meaning if I listen." - from 'Learning to Listen on the Thames Beach' by Anna Robinson 'Rubbish' might once have been a throwaway word, but these days it reminds us how we have cluttered the planet with our leavings something that is powerfully explored in Carolyn Forché's poem of protest. Poems by Jo Bell, Laurence Binyon, David Constantine, Carolyn Forché, Lorna Goodison, John Greening, Anna Robinson, David Wagoner, John Wedgwood Clark and Susan Wicks. Cover illustration by Hugh Ribbans. Supplied with envelope and bookmark.