I’m delighted to share two new significant blue things in this post. The first is my photo above. It’s not the first time I’ve seen a kingfisher while out walking in Worcestershire. But it is the first time I’ve been able to observe one for more than a few seconds, and also long enough to get some photos.

I caught sight of the blue flash of this beauty flying from one side of the canal to the other, and, for once, it didn’t disappear into reeds and I was also close enough to be able to spot the branch where it landed. This made me suspect I may in fact have seen kingfishers more often than I realise. When I’ve spotted kingfishers, it’s always been through the bright blue of their wings in flight. Once this bird was on the branch though, not moving, it just looked like an autumn leaf, its blue feathers somehow hidden or camouflaged to my naked eye at that distance. Zooming in on this leaf, which I knew wasn’t a leaf, the camera acted like binoculars, revealing all the feathers, beak and poise.

Rationally, I don’t believe in signs and simple coincidences being any more significant than chance. But emotionally, it’s an entirely different story. This kingfisher moment was one I thought I’d go my whole life without experiencing naturally (as opposed to sitting in a hide specially designed so photographers can potentially get a picture). And it happened when I was feeling somewhat depressed, on the weekend celebrating a significant birthday with my dad, and after I’d just received a wonderful new review of Darling Blue!

DARLING BLUE REVIEW

“Darling Blue is a poetry collection that creates its own world. […]
“It’s an elegant lesson in what a whole collection can do, rather than simply being a series of competent or excellent poems. Darling Blue gives us ekphrasis, yes, but as an act of creating a woman’s inner life: we want the paintings to decode her. Then there are prose-poem heartbreaks when reality crashes in, and the epistolary poems addressed to Blue.[…]
“I finished the book thinking about the whole thing rather than individual poems: about what had happened to me as a reader while moving through its paintings, and how differently I understood the first pages by the time I reached the last. The collection is the poem. And it is a very good one.”
Jessica Mookherjee, Everybody’s Reviewing, full review here.

I can’t say how much it meant to me and how grateful I am for this stunning new review of Darling Blue by Jessica Mookherjee. A big thanks to her and Everybody’s Reviewing. 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.

OTHER NEWS

In my last post, I was pleased to share about my poem,The Frog Princess , in Quibble Lit’s JUNGLE: Quibble Lit — Volume VIII. The piece was inspired by the issue’s cover art and I’m really excited to have it appearing on QuibbleLit.com and in the print edition.

I also now have a craft note up on the Quibble Lit substack about the inspiration and writing of this poem, where you can check out the cover image in more detail too. You can read it here — and if anything in it strikes a chord with your own writing process, or contrasts significantly, then do leave a comment. I find artistic process really interesting, especially trying to pin down the instinctive bits so that I can challenge, adapt or re-spark them.

Recently, I’ve also had poems in some other beautiful magazines and anthologies. This includes my poem trawling Aquatica III, 2094 shortlisted and then highly commended in the Matthew Lanyon Poetry Prize 2026, which is in a stunning competition anthology The Archaeology of Tomorrow (Guillemot Press, 2026). The summer before is in The Fig Tree Women’s Poetry Anthology (Crooked Spire Press, 2026) and my poem Divine Lust is in Clarion Poetry #6.

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!

COMING UP SOON

Saturday, 3 October 2026 — Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology 2026 screening

12 pm – 3 pm (playing on a loop)
The Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight CH62 5EQ

FREE — No booking required
Details here

Sarah is delighted to have a three-part poetryfilm sequence, Invisible Bridges, in this year’s Wirral Poetry Festival Video Anthology, which will be screened at the Lady Lever Art Gallery on Saturday, 4 October, 2025. This is a free event and more details about this can be found here. The full festival programme can be found here. And see below for another festival event featuring Sarah’s collection Darling Blue (Indigo Dreams, 2025).


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.