Ten Poems About Walking

Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing beautiful ‘Instead of a card’ poetry pamphlets. Based in Nottingham in the UK, we’ve been making our mini-anthologies since 2008 and have now sold over 915,000 titles – which means that we’ve shared over nine million poems with our readers all over the world.

There seems to be a natural connection between walking and poetry. For William Wordsworth, the regular rhythm of walking was a stimulus to writing, and he said that “nine-tenths of my verses have been poured out in the open air.”

This beautiful mini-anthology contains William Wordsworth’s heart-stopping ‘Old Man Travelling’ alongside contemporary poems that capture the delights of a walk with a dear friend and of walking in solitude. There’s a poem about setting off through city streets to find a river and a heron, and another featuring a surprising encounter on the top of Helvellyn. One by one then as a whole, these poems remind us that being on foot is one of the best ways of experiencing the world:

“Sole self I bedded down close as I could
To listen: lapping, birdlife homing, settling …”

from ‘Lake’ by David Constantine

Sasha Dugdale is an award-winning poet and translator – and a keen walker.

Our pamphlets are supplied with an envelope for posting, a bookmark for a special message and an ‘Instead of a card’ sticker to seal the back of the envelope for a lovely finishing touch.

Paperback | 20 printed pages