Poems from Maggie's six previous collections – about the strength of women, concern for our planet, and hope in the power of love – are gathered here alongside bitter-sweet new poems about the joys and fears of a grandmother in this troubled, vulnerable and precious world.

'This is a poetry of miracles, unfailingly fresh and exuberant, written with clear-eyed, exemplary warmth. Her lines are flooded by intense experiences of a physical world, both lovely and threatened, and of human love whose tenderness is as 'long-lasting as uranium, thorium, light.’ Alison Brackenbury

Poems from previous collections, also in Wish.

Buy from my shop or from www.greenex.co.uk/wish

Reviews

 ‘the collection as a whole holds onto a radical and joyful optimism for that future, in spite of fear, in spite of melancholy, ‘in spite of everything’’

‘…her poems are sometimes temples of Delight which house shrines to ‘Veil’d Melancholy,’ sometimes temples of political Melancholy, which open up to reveal Delight, Joy, Beauty.’

‘… this is a grown-up, fierce, brave joy that can thrive in the teeth of political realism.’

‘Hers is not an escapist joy, though, that turns away from horror. Rather, it’s the kind of visionary and radical joy that Friedrich Schiller and Ludwig van Beethoven might have understood – a joy that challenges present and future ‘Realities.’’

Dr Jonathan Taylor

https://everybodysreviewing.blogspot.com/2025/03/review-by-jonathan-taylor-of-wish-new.html?m=1

‘‘… forthright, heartfelt reflections on life and the redemptive potential of love’ ‘I’m delighted to see this lovely selection… continues to demonstrate Brookes-Butt’s unpretentious language, humour, and flair for finding universal significance in her lived experience’

Paul McDonald

https://londongrip.co.uk/2025/03/london-grip-poetry-review-maggie-brookes-butt/

Films of poems selected from previous collections.

View readings of poems from ‘everlove’: