Description
“Reading the poems together is like stepping into a forest where each tree has a highly individual character. Patricia M Osborne does really well to conjure up such a playful range of voices that feel different yet enhance one another, and her shifts in stanza length add brilliant disruption.”
- John McCullough – Poet (Shortlisted for the Poetry Costa Award 2019)
“Patricia M Osborne writes of the natural world with keen observation and a sensitivity for the trees and flowers, birds and animals that fill it. In this collection we learn of traditions, mythology and lore, factual information and fantasy, mingling in one glorious cornucopia. Patricia casts her true poet’s eye over it all, and clothes it in images to enchant the reader.”
- Alison Chisholm – Poet and Poetry Columnist on Writing Magazine
About Patricia M Osborne
Patricia M Osborne is married with grown-up children, and six grandchildren. She was born in Liverpool and now lives in West Sussex. In February 2019, Patricia graduated with an MA in Creative Writing (Merit) via the University of Brighton. She is a novelist, poet, and short story writer. When she isn’t working on her own writing, she enjoys sharing her knowledge and acts as a mentor to fellow writers and she is an online poetry tutor with Writers’ Bureau.
‘Her poetry pamphlet, ‘Taxus Baccata’ was a winner with Hedgehog Poetry Press. Patricia has had many poems and short stories published in various literary magazines and anthologies.
In 2017 Patricia was Poet in Residence at a local Victorian Park in Crawley and her poetry was exhibited throughout the park. In 2019 her poetry was on display at Crawley Museum.
Patricia has a successful blog at Whitewingsbooks.com where she features other writers and poets.
Patricia’s hobbies include walking around her local park and lake, swimming, reading, photography, and playing the piano when time permits. All these activities offer her inspiration to create new writing.
Product details
elisabeth kelly –
What a wonderful way to meet trees in a whole new way. Full of folklore and Patricia brings the woods to life in a beautiful way. It felt like walking with a friend through a native woodland.
Brian McManus –
Patricia M Osborne is a popular, an accomplished, and a widely published writer contributing to our arts and culture in a variety of ways and forms, and it was with some anticipation that I set aside the time to read and hereby comment on her book of nature poetry, Taxus Baccata from the Hedgehog Poetry Press.
Nature poetry it certainly is and poetry which is endowed with such elemental qualities that it imbues the reader with an innate sense of satisfaction and furnishes them with an eloquent inspiration which carries them through the book and beyond.
In terms of line and stanza structure Osborne’s academic background shines through but in a manner which repeatedly delights and surprises.
The poetry is populated by a plethora of interesting characters, stories and sub-stories which offer a sense of inclusiveness and belonging to the reader but without the sometimes overpowering use of tired metaphor which sometimes diminishes much of contemporary nature poetry.
The language is crisp, fresh and emboldens the reader to search out the little mysteries and surprises which are sometimes teased in a conciliatory sense between the lines. There is a sense of the primordial below the surface here which all good nature poetry ought to possess and the rhythm is not metric rhythm but rhythm of the earth.
A complete lack of artifice completes the package and it is underlined by a real sense of the simplicity which is missing from our current world. For me, the unwritten promise of this volume is that it will have you quickly searching out more of the same. It is that kind of writing, it is transformative.
Brian McManus. Poet, Essayist, Reviewer, Researcher.