A - Z of Superstitions

Forthcoming from Yaffle Press, summer 2023

‘A - Z of Superstitions’ is Ian Harker’s new short book of poems, forthcoming from Yaffle Press.

A personal collection of poems, it explores the stories, myths, legends, beliefs and half-beliefs that individuals and communites tell to make sense of the world, and to enrich and enliven lived experience.

Work appearing in the pamphlet has appeared in the BBC Proms Poetry Competition, the Leeds Peace Poetry Prize, Prole magazine, and others.

The title poem from the book is below.

A - Z of Superstitions

“…they believe and they do not believe…”

Richard Hoggart, The Uses of Literacy

Auntie Vera is coming back from bingo 

at the Majestic. It’s a full moon 

and I’ve been waiting up for her 

on the lawn, my bare feet, the ends 

of my pyjamas getting damp with the dew. 

Vera grew up on Beeston Hill. 

She says I don’t see things 

the way they really are. 

She says there’s a fish in the river Aire 

with her wedding ring in its mouth.

She says when she moved here 

the wallpaper was covered in knights 

in armour and their eyes followed her 

around the room. Once, a week after she died, 

her mam was standing on the landing 

watching her. Weren’t you scared I asked 

and she laughed and said why 

would I be scared of my own mother? 

She lights a candle for her twice a year,  

once on her birthday, once on the day she died.  

She doesn’t think anyone will light one for her. 

When the bulbs blow, that’s when she knows 

she’s near. She tells me about the pair of shoes 

she found bricked up in the hall,  

how if a picture falls off the wall it means a death.  

She reminds me that words are powerful, 

that you should never say something you don’t mean 

because they echo somewhere else. 

She reminds me that someone’s always listening 

and one day they’ll read it all back. 

a brief biography…

Ian Harker is a poet and editor, co-founder of Strix magazine and an organiser of Leeds Lit Fest. He won the Templar Book & Pamphlet competition in 2015, which led to the publication of ‘The End of the Sky’ that same year, and ‘Rules of Survival’ in 2017. He has been shortlisted for the Troubadour and Bridport prizes, and a runner-up in the BBC Proms Poetry Competition. He was also poet in residence at the Henry Moore Institute. His next pamphlet, ‘A - Z of Superstitions’, is forthcoming from Yaffle Press.