What’s so good about being fast? Sometimes a little patience goes a long way, and a slow thing can be just what you need. Slow walks, slow thoughts and slow afternoons in the sun provide inspiration for the poets in Slow Things, an anthology which celebrates taking life at a leisurely pace and existing in the present. As ice, traffic and a giant wooden boulder all advance with a soothing inevitability, the poets invite us to see the beauty in the accretion of tea-stains in a teapot and the unwavering stare of a loris.
Rachel Piercey is a London-based poet, editor and tutor who also writes for children. She studied English Literature at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, where she was President of the Oxford University Poetry Society and won the Newdigate Prize in 2008. She also has an MA in Creative Writing from Royal Holloway.