THE STONE LIBRARY
Poems by Alyson Hallett

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Alyson Hallett was brought up in Street, Somerset. Her childhood was infused with the shoe factory where her father worked, the view of Glastonbury Tor in the distance and the lattice of rhynes that criss-crossed the levels.

She has lived in various places including Paris, Iona, Glasgow, Bristol and currently resides in the remote Devon town of Hartland where she has been poet-in-residence at The Small School for the past three years. Previous residencies include writer-in-residence at the University of the West of England and writer-in-residence at Arts Council England, South West for the Year of the Artist.

Landscapes and cityscapes, love and memory, travel and transition: these are the core ingredients that bubble away in Alyson’s work and life. She has published short stories, written drama for Radio 4, and has a poem carved into Milsom Street pavement in Bath. Her ongoing project, the migration habits of stones, involves carrying stones around the world with words carved into them.

The Stone Library is Alyson Hallett’s first full volume.

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How The World Gets Bigger

This morning there’s a note pinned to your door
explaining why you’ve had to rush out and cancel
our meeting. I am disappointed, curse your name,
turn back into the rain and change comes to me
slowly, drop by drop. I lift my face to the sky,
unbutton my jacket. There is no place to be and time
unlaces herself wantonly. I walked the christened
pavement. Cherry tree hung like a chandelier,
the bend at the end of the road suddenly appealing,
the way it turns without revealing what lies beyond.

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THE STONE LIBRARY
Price £7.95 per copy
Cover illustration:  Blegberry Cliffs, woodcut by Merlyn Chesterman.
Publication: JULY 2007 (68 pages laminated paperback)