Everything is Present

Synopsis

Poems within Everything is Present have won The Ledbury Competition, The Wigtown Prize, and were featured in The Forward Book of Poems of the Year.

‘As brave, as bravura, a performance as the ill-advised, little-known acts it celebrates, this is both a lament and a defiant affirmation of an individual’s life.’ Phillip Gross, Ledbury Prize

‘A stark and timely reminder of how there is always some level of choice when it comes to traditions and symbols, and the significant role this choice has in harming or healing our collective and individual relationships with the past.’ Roseanne Watt, Wigtown Prize

Everything is Present is a mid-life coming of age tale. The back to front narrative is divided into three sections, End, Middle and Beginning. Poems explore the effect of grief and ageing and the ability of these two to alter the past as well as the present. The title comes from a Buddhist meditation referring to the non-linear nature of time as well as its gift.

The first section End contains award-winning elegies for a mother who died on a locked-down ward during the pandemic and a grandfather who escaped from Nazi-occupied Lwów (then in Poland, now the Ukraine). There is also a Ledbury-winning poem describing a Jerry Lee Lewis- loving father’s visit to A&E. The second section Middle negotiates the shifting ground of middle age exploring women’s bodies, work, therapy and the consolations of love and spirituality in poems featuring amusement arcades, train derailments and Allen Jones’ controversial women as furniture sculptures. Beginning revisits youthful sex, running away from home and Happy Shopper before embracing middle aged sex and then returning in a (never) ending to the mother.

Praise for Previous Work

‘“How much dark one candle/can leave” writes Anna Woodford at the passing of her grandmother. It’s a dark that will accompany, will see her through. There’s a level-headed love here that, like life itself, is strong enough to carry the equipages of wit and brilliance in her poetry.’ —Gillian Allnutt

‘Here is a poet that loves language – as a toy, a tool, a weapon.’ —Jacqueline Gabbitas (review of Party Piece), Poetry Review

‘Anna Woodford is a rarity: a youngish poet with considerable talent, something to say, and a voice unique as a fingerprint ... Woodford’s poems can give their readers new eyes.’ —Rory Waterman, Sphinx

‘Anna Woodford is not afraid to move around the page. Most poets cling to the left-hand margin as a starting point for each poem but Woodford know the value of space. It’s possible to make an impact with just a few words if you know what you are doing and these poems do just that.’ —Ambit