This wonderful mini-anthology of poems is a celebration of the many ways in which mothers are important in our lives. We meet the bedtime-story-reading mother with her special bedtime story voice, and the mother who loves to cook with fruit and vegetables from her patch at the bottom of the garden.
 
Then there’s the elderly mother who can still manage a couple of “quick two minute waltzes” to Abba or Queen when her son comes to visit. This mother’s relationship with her son is complex, but nevertheless there is love.
 
There are also poems that celebrate the precious memories we hold after our mothers are no longer with us. When a man hears a woman singing he is transported back:
 
“To the old Sunday evenings at home, with winter outside
And hymns in the cosy parlour, the tinkling piano our guide.”
from ‘Piano’ by DH Lawrence
 
These poems will make you laugh and cry – and sometimes both.
 
Poems by Fleur Adcock, Mona Arshi, Gillian Clarke, Maura Dooley, Jonathan Edwards, Jackie Kay, DH Lawrence, James Reeves, John Siddique and Benjamin Zephaniah.