The Day before Joy by Penny Sharman Abigail Parry and a skilful and varied

and a skilful and varied use of form

For the past 50 years

With poems from Amy Acre

and a nameless place peopled by the ghosts of dead friends

A grimoire is a manual for invoking spirits

The Day before Joy by Penny Sharman Abigail Parry and a skilful and variedTheres a jolting frankness to these poems. Sometimes oddly bare and powerful, they say what they mean. Mark Waldron Penny Sharmans poems have a painters touch, not just in terms of colour, form and light as invocation but in the care with which she picks words and feels her way through them to offer magical experiences that feel fresh and precise. George Szirtes Penny Sharman believes in beauty. She believes in a world where cabbage white flies low