‘Crossing Paths’ (Black Cat Press, 2026)

Written between December 2023 and July 2024, Crossing Paths is a collaboration between poets Jean Atkin and Richard Skinner, both keen walkers, both of whose work is informed by the natural world and the human experience of exploring it. The walks in the collection were taken separately, and in many different locations. They would each pass a poem across, then write a new poem in response. The poems map landscapes from the Coast to Coast walk across northern England to the Berwyn mountains of Powys; from the ‘rock-hop tussock-clamber’ of Seefin in Cork to ‘the woollen stockings / of Kirkby Stephen’; from ‘paths scrambled to a spirit level’ near Aberfoyle to Cheshire, where you may ‘Wish now on Whistlebitch, for the lost wells, the dew ponds’. Crossing Paths is a book of poems about walking, place, nomenclature and nature.

‘Like the walks, Crossing Paths covers a lot of ground for a slim volume in terms of both form and technique … Some walks may be faster, others slower and more contemplative, but techniques pulling the reader onwards need to do so while still ensuring important details aren’t missed. Both Atkin and Skinner manage this beautifully … Skinner’s “Cloud Inversion Over Aberfoyle” features stunning descriptions that include ‘a forest of throats’, with ‘trees creaking / the old light of green dreams’. For me, this poem and his earlier “The Birstwith Rapids”, are a reminder of the water and light within us too … These details emphasise other aspects as well: the passing and presence of time that recurs throughout, but also the physicality of landscapes, the nature there and the human body. The linking and likening of these is, perhaps, a reminder of how intertwined they are.’
— Sarah Leavesley, London Grip

You can purchase a copy here.