August Stories and Poems

This month’s selection of Stories and Poems include a recommendation from a Reader Leader all the way from New Zealand, and other destinations are also on the list – take your pick from Louisiana, the Caribbean and Bognor Regis!

We’re also delving into The Reader Bookshelf with picks from Robert Macfarlane and Roger Robinson, who take us Walking the Earth.

August’s prose picks reflect the need that many of us have for a change of scenery; we join characters on retreats away from their everyday lives, but ask ourselves how much does a break from the norm offer us a chance to escape? Does it instead give us the opportunity to re-evaluate our lives? We find that pathways through our lives can be mental as well as physical. This month’s stories and extracts also introduce us to a range of parental figures who have quite an impact on their children’s lives, and may make us feel a wide spectrum of emotions.

August’s stories and extracts are:

‘It Used to be Green Once’ by Patricia Grace

‘The Summer of Birds’ by Gerard Donovan

The Awakening (extract) by Kate Chopin

The Fortnight in September (extract) by RC Sherriff

‘Path’, from The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

As life begins to shift and we beginning to explore wider opportunities in our own ways and at our own pace, our poem selections for this month explore themes that many of us will be giving thought to: moving forward, rediscovery, freedom and hope. All big ideas, with lots of ways to walk down. Hopefully, August’s poems will provide new perspectives on things that mean much to so many.

‘Day Moon’ by Roger Robinson

‘Hope’ by Lisel Mueller

‘Moving Forward’ by Rainer Maria Rilke (translated by Robert Bly)

‘Archipelago’ by Kendel Hippolyte 

‘Freedom’ by Langston Hughes

If you're a Reader Leader head to the Online Community Hub to download this month's selection.