Overview

Time Seeds is a collection of poems celebrating life, acknowledging loss and asserting the moral imperative of hope and renewal. Already acclaimed for her eloquently written works of historical fiction, Margaret Elphinstone has now applied her skills to a collection of writing which has adopted the brevity and immediacy of poetry to articulate the urgency and perils of our times. Each turn of the page brings its own surprise, whether a deeply personal or globally challenging idea. This is no predictable poetry collection. Nor, despite the passionately expressed fears for all living beings, is it a missal of doom. A belief in renewal, she argues, is essential, though the form it will take is as yet unknown and may surprise us. Doing nothing is not an option. Failure to hope would be a terrible betrayal of future generations, not just of humanity but of all life. These wholly approachable poems share moments from a life richly observed. Here are poems of time and memory, experience, and gratitude for the beauty of the world. They are bright, full of colour and unpretentious, shaped by Margaret Elphinstone’s characteristic wisdom and warmth. – Kathleen Jamie

Full Product Details

Author:   Margaret Elphinstone
Publisher:   Wild Goose Publications
Imprint:   Wild Goose Publications
Dimensions:   Width: 14.00cm , Height: 7.70cm , Length: 21.00cm
ISBN:  

9781804324059

ISBN 10:   1804324051
Pages:   128
Publication Date:   31 March 2026
Audience:   General/trade ,  General
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Not yet available  
This item is yet to be released. You can pre-order this item and we will dispatch it to you upon its release.

Table of Contents

Contents Foreword by Jane McBeth     11 Time seeds     15 Lilies     16 Mother     17 Fifteen glass fishing floats     18 Brother     20 Scarlet pimpernel     22 No otter     23 Anchor watch     24 Brocken spectre     26 Thinking of you, in Gandolfi’s     27 Before Paolo Uccello’s Saint George and the Dragon     28 Tulips     29 Island     30 Abbazia di San’ Antimo     32 Out to tea     33 War and Peace 1990     36 Judgement in Sabina     37 Greenham soup     38 Rosa ‘Compassion’     40 Mappa Mundi, Hereford c.1300     42 Gleam     44 Black Craig from my door     45 Grey Man     46 Ben Lui moon     48 Path     49 Sabra on the path to the loch     50 After the storm     51 Reilig Orain     52 Papa Stour     53 Return     54 Five takes     56 Sule Skerry     58 Mannin     60 Winter     61 Flood     62 Wild garlic     63 Swans     64 Other lives     65 Upriver     66 Water summer     68 Hunter’s moon     69 Christmas Eve     70 winter haiku     72 Clock tower     73 Keeill at Maughold     74 Thrall     76 Balmaghie kennings     78 Doggerland     79 Great ape     80 Plant Library, Edinburgh Botanic Gardens     81 Cycad     82 Peel Harbour     84 Wings passing     86 Last walk     88 glen     90 Landing     92 Two Marys     93 No one     94 because they are not     95 Shéiyi     96 What to take     98 Ash Wednesday     100 Garden in the ruins     101 Resistance     102 In this live cathedral     103 Garm, New Year     104 Fimbulwinter     105 Snow     106 View from Ben Ledi     107 Pockets     108 Song for a future     109 Notes     113 Previously published poems     119 Acknowledgements     121 About the author     123

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Author Information

Margaret Elphinstone is the author of eleven novels and two books on organic gardening. Her novels include the award-winning The Sea Road, Voyageurs, Light, The Gathering Night and Lost People, which was shortlisted for Scotland’s National Book Awards 2024.

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