Somehow summer has done its magic trick again, of appearing, turning everything light and golden — though not totally in a good way when it comes to the environment and wildlife — and then, suddenly it’s August, the days are noticeably shortening again and autumn is already creeping into my diary. I have, therefore, been making the most of as much time as possible to walk and I’m very pleased to open this post with news of winning Carcanet’s Welton Walks poetry competition. The competition called for writers to be inspired by nature and the ‘June’ poem from Matthew Welton’s new collection Small Birds Singing. A perfect excuse to walk and write, not that I’ve ever really needed one. You can enjoy my poem, ‘Distillation, in snatches’ on Carcanet’s substack here and some photos from the main walk that inspired the poem on my Instagram here.

Haiku-esque poems have long been something I’ve combined with photos in photo-poems and, along with haibun, increasingly feel the forms that most naturally capture my observations of and interactions with the world around me when I walk. In this syllabic poem, the haiku-structured stanzas and a concluding 7 syllable line opened themselves like pockets waiting to be filled with snippets my mind (and eyes, ears and heart) picked up along the local towpaths in June. I struggled more with the title. I’d love to say that I’d always intended for it to have a 7-syllable structure mirroring the closing line. I didn’t and didn’t even realise until several days of sitting with ‘Distillation, in snatches’, trying to work out why it felt so much better than, for example, just Distillation. It was really pleasing to click that it had that opening syllabic balance to the final line. Though, that of course, is not the complete story. Snatches of Distillation would have 7 syllables too but doesn’t have the strange syntax of ‘Distillation, in snatches’ that feels so right, so poised (for me at least) for this poem. It is part of the greater joy, perhaps, of working with forms like haiku. The more pared down lines become, the more important punctuation can become. At the same time, that spareness can potentially open up more possible meanings (especially if omitting punctuation on line ends allows lines to link in multiple different ways, making different meanings possible simultaneously).

I’ve walked a lot of words on this poem, so I’ll stop now and move on to more news that has had me out and about walking in different places over the past month or so.

I was excited to have my poem trawling Aquatica III, 2094 shortlisted and then highly commended in the Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize 2026. I went down to Falmouth to read my poem at the Festival of Matthew Lanyon, where I also got to enjoy the exhibition of his work and, thanks to an inspiring sculpture workshop using plastic recovered from the ocean, I was also able to transform it into a physical piece (badly captured by me in the bottom two pix here). The competition theme was Archaeology of Tomorrow and you can enjoy my poem and other beautiful shortlisted and winning pieces here.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

I’m delighted too to have my poem The Language of Clouds highly commended/runner-up in St. Mary’s Arts Festival 2026‘s Peace Poetry Competition and on display in St. Mary’s Church, Stafford, as part of the festival, which ran from 20 June – 5 July 2026.

It’s been an unusually good summer for me this year as I’m also very pleased and grateful to have my poem Shirako no Taki ‘the waterfall of white thread’ shortlisted in the 2025/26 Cheshire Prize for Literature (anthology out in November), another shortlisted in Frome Festival’s Crysse Morrison Prize for Poetry 2026 and to have two stories, Not Black Death and Into thin air, shortlisted/in the top ten of this year’s Worcestershire Litfest Flash Fiction Competition (anthology out later this year), as well as a micro flash longlisted in the Welkin Genre Prize 2026 Body Prize.
 
My humorous poem A Day Out was displayed at Droitwich Spa Railway Station (Birmingham-bound platform) for June 2026 as part of the Train of Thought project. The submission criteria was a maximum of 8 lines, great fun but also a big challenge. It’s no small thing to hone all the things that could be said down to the most crucial so that every word and line not only counts but pulls maximum weight. Check out the poem at the station, in my picture here and/or through my videoed on-site reading below to see what I did with it. (I have another poem scheduled to go up in October.)

 
I’m very pleased too to have my poem My Dear Beloved and photo Moonstruck in Paris Lit Up’s moon-themed PLU Gazette, Summer Edition 2026. It’s a stunning issue, which you can read and enjoy here. (My photo and poem are at the start of Part III.)

I also have two haibun (sequences), Different Keys and Handled with care, published in Words Beyond Horizons, a prose poetry anthology by POL Publications, which can be found on Amazon here.

And I’ve another poem,The Frog Princess , in Quibble Lit’s JUNGLE: Quibble Lit — Volume VIII. The piece was inspired by one of the issue’s cover artworks art and I’m really excited to have it appearing on QuibbleLit.com and in the print edition.

Big thanks to all the people involved in making these things, and the others that I’ll mention in a bit, happen — judges, editors and those involved in the running and organising of competitions, journals and festivals!

REVIEW/PODCAST NEWS

Much gratitude to London Grip, reviews editor Michael Bartholomew-Biggs and reviewer Rennie Halstead for a long, detailed and generous review of Darling Blue. A snippet from it can be found below, along with a link for the full review. Meanwhile, more info, sample poems and other review details for Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) can be found here, and ordering from Indigo Dreams here.

“This is a rewarding, layered collection that repays revisiting. The core of the collection is a story of a lover breaking free from an affair to find herself and a mutually rewarding relationship, told through a collage of ekphrastic poems and personal reactions. Underlying the narrative is a discussion of the nature of male power, a lasting image of patriarchy shown not only in Blue’s establishing of the rules of the relationship, but also by the selection of images of passive women from the Pre-Raphaelites.

“James shows us two types of love – the mutual selfishness of the lovers and the deeper sharing of the man, and the added consequence of the child. The collection captures the way love can change and mature. Highly recommended.”
Rennie Halstead, London Grip, full review here.

I was delighted to read and discuss poems, along with the poetry and writing world, with Heys Wolfenden and Ansuya Patel in episode 30 of What! the Heys. You can enjoy this and other episodes of the writing podcast here.

POETRY & ART/POETRYFILM NEWS

My PICTURE THIS IN MOTION – POETRYFILM craft article, poem, animated gifs and poetryfilms published on The High Window as Resident Artist, Summer 2026, has also been a bittersweet celebration as this marks the last issue of the longstanding magazine. I’m proud to have been a small part of this in different ways across the years and my final artist slot includes a piece specially written and created to celebrate and thank editor David Cooke for all the work he has put into The High Window. I’m pleased to have had many poems published in the journal over this time and to have been The High Window Resident Artist in 2019 before taking up the role again for the two issues of 2026. I hope if readers haven’t enjoyed the journal before, they will not only explore this final issue but also the poetry, art, translations and special features that can be found in previous issues too. There is a wealth of wonderful pieces, information and inspiration on the website!

COMING UP SOON

Sunday, 4 October 2026 — Darling Blue, a Wirral Poetry Poetry Festival multimedia poetry & art ‘tour’

Sunday 4 October 2026 – 6.00-7.00PM
The Church Hall, Port Sunlight, Wirral, CH62 5DL

Tickets:£6 for online bookings
£7 On the Door (Subject to availability)
Carers Accompanying adults Free with Access Card

Information here: https://wirralpoetryfestival.org.uk/sarah-james-darling-blue/
Tickets (from 1 August) here: https://www.ticketsource.com/wirral-poetry/sarah-james-darling-blue/2026-10-04/18:00/t-kdyjmqa

A multimedia presentation of Sarah’s latest collection Darling Blue, enjoying poetry and art from the comfort of your seat.

Partially inspired by pieces at the Lady Lever Art Gallery, her latest collection, Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025) interweaves art-inspired poems with a book-length fictional poetry narrative of love, lust and letting go.

Darling Blue was joint winner of the Geoff Stevens Memorial Poetry Prize 2024 and Sarah’s many individual poem competition wins include the Pre-Raphaelite Society’s Poetry Prize 2024 and 2025. The High Window Resident Artist 2019 and 2026, she also runs V. Press, publishing poetry and flash fiction.

EVENTS SNIPPETS

It was a real pleasure to be July’s headline poet at Dear Listener hosted by Script Haven at its beautiful new premises in Worcester. It was a great night — lots of new and familiar poetry voices braving, or facing up to, the heat to be there — with a great range of wonderful poems in the open mic.

If you haven’t checked out the bookshop’s new place yet, I’d thoroughly recommend doing so — you can find it 5 Crown Passage, Broad Street, Worcester, (WR1 3LL). Likewise, Dear Listener. I’d thoroughly recommend both for a warm and friendly welcome — and a big thanks to everyone for having me!

P.S.: MY REVIEWING

On the topic of bookshops and reading, I’m delighted to have been able to review Dharmavadana’s Birdmen and Astronauts (Poetry Salzburg, 2026) for London Grip. You can read the review here.