In my favourite English bookshop, Mr B’s Emporium of Reading Delights in Bath, I always seem to come out with cards as well as books. It’s the only place that’s true, and it’s because they carry a wonderful series of poetry masquerading as greeting cards.

Candlestick Press produces themed collections of poems. Among the ‘cards’ I’ve carried out of Mr B’s are Ten Poems about Mothers, Ten Poems about Puddings, Ten Poems about Bicycles and Ten Poems about Aunts. Small and perfectly formed.

You can order any of the Ten Poems ‘cards’ from Candlestick Press.

Over the next few weeks I’d like to share some with you from the Ten Poems about Mothers collection (and perhaps other poems about mothers and motherhood – do you have any favourites to recommend or to write a guest post about?). You can buy the set here, and follow links throughout this series to discover more of these poets’ works.

To start with, here is the shortest poem in the collection:

Human Affection

Mother, I love you so.
Said the child, I love you more than I know.
She laid her head on her mother’s arm,
And the love between them kept them warm.

Stevie Smith (1902-1971)

Do you have any favourites to recommend?

You can see all the Sacraparental posts featuring poetry here.

If you’re new to Sacraparental, please feel very warmly welcomed to join in the conversation in the comments below, and to follow along for more stuff on Facebook (for daily extras), Pinterest and Twitter.