Now available!
Rosie Garland’s new collection of poems, ‘As In Judy’.

Flapjack Press, 2016

I wish to express heartfelt gratitude to Char March for her generous editorial input, without which this collection would be far weaker.
And to Ruth Fainlight, for her inspiring suggestion that ‘As In Judy’ would make a great title.

‘The reason I love Rosie’s work so much is that she provides food for thought. She addresses issues that need addressing, and imagines the inner and outer landscapes we all inhabit with eloquence and grace. Shed your light, Rosie.’ David Hoyle 2016

  A poem from the collection:

When You Grow Up

At night, she leaps and does not land. Spreads her arms and soars
above the fenced and neatly weeded garden. Her dreams
are practice sessions where she lifts cars, sees through walls, fights

dragons. She is a pirate captain, a queen, a horse. She is neither girl
nor boy: the distinctions are irrelevant when her small body encompasses
male and female; human, beast. A turbulent child figure-heading

the prow of her beaked ship, she buckles on armour, rescues
princesses from charming princes and spinning wheels,
fearless of the shapes beneath the bed. Too soon

she hears the summons: Breakfast! Now!
Blinks this world into focus. Hushes battle cries,
sheathes her sword between the pages of her book.

Every bedtime her mother tucks in
the sheet of marriage, husband, children: tucks it in tight.

© Rosie Garland 2016