poetic voices

The Book Bag: Poetic Voices – December 2025

And here we are. The final month of a year, that has gone by far too fast. It feels like only yesterday, I was taking decorations down in January, however only yesterday I was putting the decorations back up for the festive season.

As we’re in a new month, a new Poetic Voice has arrived. And I am ecstatic that this month in The Book Bag, I am featuring the work of a poetry superstar… Sophie Dumont. I first found Sophie’s poetry through the excellent Chris Campbell and became a fan instantly. Then I read the background to her debut book Sculling, and I reached out pretty much immediately for Sophie to be a Poetic Voice. Sculling is a profound debut collection. It has challenged my way of thinking and is quite brilliant.

Sophie Dumont is a writer based in Bristol. Her debut collection Sculling was published on National Poetry Day October 2025 and has since featured in the Guardian, Sunday Times Style and Financial Times. Her poetry won the Brian Dempsey Memorial Prize and has been published in The Rialto, Magma, The Moth, Ink Sweat and Tears and Mslexia among others.

She has an MA in Creative Writing from Bath Spa University and has held writing residencies along Bristol Harbourside with Boat Poets and Exeter Quay through Literature Works. Find out more at  www.sophiedumont.co.uk

Follow Sophie on Instagram, Bluesky or TikTok.

Credit: Jae Frederick
Credit: Jae Frederick

Sculling is published by Corsair (who kindly provided the rights to use poems from the collection) and can be purchased here.

The first poem, is ‘Ghazal for when I think of you, I think of me’.

One of the main themes in Sculling is how one can live on through a selfless act of organ donation by saving others. Because of this, I wanted to raise some awareness for Organ Donation, which is a vital service that can help save lives. In the UK, information can be accessed here: https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk/.

Where are these December days going? It feels like only yesterday I was sharing the first part of Sophie’s feature.

Today, I am sharing another stunning piece from Sculling, titled ‘Celandine’. I am so grateful that Sophie is sharing work from her excellent debut collection.

I’m looking forward to sharing further pieces from Sophie throughout December. Bookmark this post and return on the 18th of December to read another poem from this remarkable collection. Sculling is one of my personal picks in The Book Bag Christmas Gift List which can be found here.

Stay Poetic,

Paul

The Book Bag: Poetic Voices – November 2025

November, here we are. The fiery palate outside makes me think this year is burning through time. Where did October go?

With a new month, comes a new Poetic Voice and I am beyond thrilled to be able to announce and welcome to The Book Bag, Rebecca Goss, a poet I have long regarded as exceptional, especially for her poetry of place. It was excellent to hear Rebecca receive much deserved mainstream recognition from Frank Skinner on his podcast a couple of months ago, listen here.

Image Credit: Natalie J Watts

Rebecca Goss is the author of four full-length collections. Her second collection, Her Birth, (Carcanet, 2013) was shortlisted for several prizes including the 2013 Forward Prize for Best Collection. She is the winner of the Sylvia Plath Prize 2022. Her latest collection Latch (Carcanet, 2023) was shortlisted for the Creative Suffolk Author Award, 2025. She works as a poetry mentor, and is a Writing for Life Fellow with the Royal Literary Fund, in NHS Recovery Colleges. She is current Poet in Residence for CW+, the official charity of Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Follow Rebecca on Instagram @gosspoems

This month I will be sharing a few pieces from Rebecca’s collection, ‘Latch’ available to buy from Carcanet here which previously is a A London Review Bookshop Book of the Year and has been longlisted for the Longlisted for the New Angle Prize for Literature 2025. Carcanet have kindly provided rights for me to share images and poetry.

The first poem I will be sharing from Latch is ‘The Farm’

As promised, and graciously shared by Rebecca, this is ‘Weir’ from the collection ‘Latch’.

I want to thank Rebecca for sharing this bonus piece from ‘Latch’. This is one of my personal favourites in the collection and it is a real privilege to be able to share ‘The Hounds’.

Remember, you can here Frank Skinner discussing ‘Latch’ on his podcast here. You can buy ‘Latch’ here. It would make an excellent gift for poetry lovers.

Stay Poetic

Paul

The Book Bag: Poetic Voices – June 2025

Welcome to the first instalment of a new feature as part of The Book Bag. Poetic Voices will feature a different poet every month. This feature aims to platform and showcase exemplary work from writers I admire across the poetic landscape and will run concurrently with the regular weekly episodes of The Book Bag where I’ll still be sharing thoughts on books I’ve read in the week.

So without further ado, our featured Poetic Voice for June 2025 is Matthew M.C. Smith. A man who does so much for poets across the world and an incredible poet in his own right. If you’ve read The Keeper Of Aeons Book Bag article, you’ll know I’m a big fan.

Matthew M. C. Smith is a writer from the east of Swansea, the industrial heartland of the city.  He has a PhD on Robert Graves and Celticism. He is widely published and his work can be read in Poetry Wales, Arachne Press, These Pages Sing, The Gower Society Journal, Atrium Poetry and Acropolis Journal. Matthew is writing his own novel of The Odyssey, hoping to complete a final draft in 2025. He is campaigning for the return of the “Welsh Elgin Marbles” – the Red Lady of Paviland – back to Swansea from Oxford. 

Matthew loves everything Star Wars, Welsh Rugby, collecting signed poetry books and 60s/ 70s vinyl. He can be found on long time-travelling walks in Gower and the Welsh hills and coastline. 

His last poetry collection was The Keeper of Aeons (Broken Spine, 2022). In 2024, he read with Owen Sheers and Matthew Hollis.

Matthew edits Black Bough, the Silver Branch project and TopTweetTuesday. He is on Twitter, Bluesky, Facebook, Insta/ Threads.

Not a Mirror

and its flat, flipped impression,
not the containing frame. 
Not the predictable form of self,
presented, out there,
thinned in depth.

She wants to hold her hologram,
through passages of gold
out into the uncaring city:
through mindless mountains,
the ocean's unthinking, frayed edge,
bearing its fierce blue flicker
like a bust of Nefertiti,
unflipped, uncontained,
filling heart-sized height and depth.

She wants to hold its crackle
like an offering to be placed
at the sanctuary 
of a future self.
Green Man 

Mist drifts through webs, 
rain-flecked. 

From the house, 
from the ivy way, 
all paths spiral, shadowed 
by green ruins, 
unravelled to the sky 
and beyond, 
the forest is ghost. 

Walk through the night, 
walk to your rest, kneel 
under the beat moon 
and the pitiless stars
and look upon
the Green Man, 
moss-cheeked, 
ivy-bearded, 
who stares, 
deathless, 
through you.

Today, I’m sharing the following poignant and important piece by Matthew. 

Colouring the Birds of Gaza

In a gallery in Swansea
children are colouring in paper birds,
each one a symbol
of a child killed in Gaza.

Crayons are clenched, 
tiny fists of protest,
pencils propped 
in the pressing triangle of 
fingers and thumb.

Ask them,
the children always know the truth.

It's about power.
Violence breeds hatred.
No-one can ever win.
Everyone should be free.
Stop the War.

This is not the poem. This is almost 
nothing. Look, instead at the paper birds,
the children fixing wings on the glass
that crinkle in the sunlight.

I am delighted to share another poem from Matthew MC Smith today (30/06/2025).

Your Sundown is Electric
 
Tonight, I will imagine one sky
and your hand reaching up,
your fingers touching the shimmer
with whatever’s left in you.
 
You give the remains
of your palette’s freedom, 
watching it trail
through the sky,
like a comet’s
sinking tail.
 
Your heart is as long as the earth,
it could be forever, it cannot go –
a shock of joy before the low hum
of earth things 
and the stars’ iron wheel,
so distant from the wild streak of your wide eyes,
the intake of your breath.
 
Tonight, I will imagine one sky
and that you are that outstretched finger,
as you sit on that step, in a hallway
flooded by light,
looking upwards,
 
your sundown is electric.


Thanks for reading, keep up with my socials to find out when the next poem goes live. Username is @paulwritespoems on Bluesky, Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X. You can also sign up to receive updates direct to your inbox when a new post goes live. Currently there is a delay in July’s Poetic Voice going live.

Take it easy and stay poetic.

Paul