The Light Box

The Light Box places the personal alongside classic myths, the imagined lives, and afterlives, of ordinary people, cultural icons, and those depicted in their art. Stanley Spencer, Margaret Thatcher, two men kissing in an airport arrivals hall; in Rosie Jackson's hands, 'the ordinary becomes unfamiliar and scarred with legend'. Rosie Jackson works with creative writing and the arts in community and health settings. She has degrees from Warwick and York, has taught at the University of East Anglia, and is widely published. She lives near Frome in Somerset. "It's a long time since I was so enchanted with a body of poems; these haunt my imagination with their deft sleights-of-hand, shifting personae, lightly-handled depths of wit, heart-intelligence, compassion, perceptiveness. They intrigue, seduce, move, invite question. What gives Jackson's work its strength and rarity is her merging of the numinous with the power of the sensory world." Roselle Angwin, author of All the Missing Names of Love "Stonking good poems." Jo Bell, author of Kith "The Light Box expertly explores the territory of both heart and spirit. Confidently crafted poems, by turns intimate and expansive, bring together emotional authenticity and sparkling imagination. A richly rewarding collection." Stephen Boyce, author of The Sisyphus Dog "Detail after stunning detail exposes rapture, fear, longing. These poems will make your battered heart beat fast again." Claire Crowther, author of Silents