Books by Mick Yates

With Songs to Learn & Sing we wanted to try something a little different. We challenged poets to choose their favourite song (or a favourite song, nobody has just one, after all) and from there they should shamelessly steal the title and then write a poem that responds to it. This response could be based on how the song makes them feel, a memory of where they heard it first or whatever it was that made it important in the first place.This proved to be very popular and choosing Twenty from among them was all but impossible. But choose them you must and we were pleased to select Ceinwen Haydon’s I Want To Hold Your Hand as the winner of our competition as it summed-up exactly what it was all about in the first place, although Ali Jones and Mick Yates, our Highly Commended Runners-Up, both could have taken the metaphorical Gold Disc on another day.Songs to Learn & Sing is something a little different and we are sure that it will soon become a classic.

 ‘The Blue Hour is a period of morning and evening twilight when  the sun is below the horizon colouring the sky a deep blue. The poems   in this enchanting and magical collection reflect upon the mysteries, the joys and the       sorrows of human existence from both a personal and a universal perspective.  It is a journey that we all share in common, and these are poems that chart our shared       experience from dawn to sunset in a celebratory and life-affirming way.’  ‘His work is breathtaking, so very human and accessible’- Heidi Nightengale, Publisher & Editor at Clare Songbirds Publishing House‘In the real way of a conversation that starts light and then dives deep Yates draws us into topics of life and death, our connectedness to the earth, the wonder of the ocean, our past. He surprises with some spectacular unexpected endings. Poems with what I have called‘Slap upside the head’ last lines. Each a gem, shining stone or shell shard gleaned from       a winter beach during the long wait for spring. Collect one yourself.’- Rachael Z. Ikins, Associate Editor, Clare Songbirds Publishing House.