Picking Up Signals

These are poems for our time, which stir as well as make us reflect. Flowing between childhood and adulthood and ranging from the deeply personal to the universal, themes of motherhood, adoption, birth and loss, nature, the everyday transformed, are woven together in poetry which reaches out to the reader and invites us to pay attention. Many of the poems are responses to the rawness of life: from the ache of relationships gone wrong, to our impact on the natural environment, and the capricious cruelty of war. They look at the world unflinchingly, not letting us get too comfortable, but always with warmth, humanity and a thread of hope at their core. Jane brings the reader up short with an unsparing observation, then in another poem considers the small and precious - a single sparrow, a garden plant. She explores form and plays with words, surprising the reader in every poem. With a lyrical use of language which is continually arresting, these poems touch life’s peripheries, acknowledging its rough edges, but always with eyes open, waiting for a message, watching for the signals.