Slow Road Home, Poems by Sheila Templeton

Val Penny ♦ October 31, 2014 ♦ 5 Comments

Those of you who are familiar with my reviews will know that Sheila Templeton is one of my favourite poets. I last heard her reading when she appeared with Michael Malone at Tidelines in the village. What a great combination! That evening I picked up a collection of Michael’s poems In The Raw, reviewed here https://bookreviewstoday.wordpress.com/2014/10/20/in-the-raw-by-michael-malone/ ‎ I also secured another of Sheila’s anthologies Slow Road Home. This was Sheila’s first collection. It came out in 2004 and it has taken me until now to secure a copy! One of her other anthologies, Tender is the North is reviewed here, https://bookreviewstoday.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/tender-is-the-…eila-templeton/ ‎

Although Sheila is a Scottish poet who hails from Aberdeenshire, Scotland she has traveled the world and now lives in Ayrshire in the south-west of Scotland. She has been publishing poetry since 1998 and won the Scottish Writer’s Poetry Trophy for Like a Visitor in 2002. That poem is included in The Slow Road Home, and it is most evocative. However, for what it is worth, my own favourites are Summertime and A Little Sleeve. Still, I am pleased no to have to choose and to have the whole collection to read and enjoy.

Sheila Templeton’s poetry has appeared in The Herald, New Writing Scotland and Poetry Scotland. If you have not yet read her poetry, I commend it to you now.

Valerie Penny