December 2023 Frip
![A blue background with some gold solid circles and some gold circle outlines. They look a little like planets.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Penguin-Book-of-Spiritual-Poetry-320x225.jpg)
Across the empty field
Victoria Moul reviews The Penguin Book of Spiritual Verse edited by Kaveh Akbar (Penguin, 2023)
![Painting of Wallace Stevens. He is wearing a tweed suit and looking stern.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Wallace-Stevens-Portrait-600-320x225.jpg)
Letters on the Centenary of Harmonium
Paul Stephenson and Lisa Kelly exchange letters on the poetry of Wallace Stevens
![Castaway Companions](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/plugins/pt-content-views-pro/public/assets/images/default_image.png)
Castaway Companions
Vanessa Lampert chooses poems by Matthew Dickman, Dorianne Laux and Karen Solie for her desert island
![Photo of Nell's bookshelf. Predictably, there are poetry books.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Nell-Prince-Bookshelf-pic-320x225.jpg)
The World’s Undebatably Dark Ages
Nell Prince gives us a tour of her poetry bookshelf and recommends Catullus, Herrick and Frost
![Section from the book cover. An abstract image that could be a sun and yellow sand, but ... you know.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Rope-Of-Sand-Cover-HIGH-RES-320x225.jpg)
Form it from loosestrife, form it remorselessly
Stephen Payne reviews Rope of Sand by Fiona Larkin (Pindrop Press, 2023)
![A photograph of a small house, painted half blue and half yellow. The porch is red.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Instead-of-an-Alibi-—-Geoff-Hattersley-320x225.jpg)
If Tarring Neville was not a village but a procedure
Matthew Paul reviews Instead of an Alibi by Geoff Hattersley (Broken Sleep Books, 2023)
![Part of the text "Collecting the Data" in red serif font on a turquoise background.](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Collecting-the-Data-by-Mat-Riches-COVER-320x225.jpg)
Each brief puncture of the incoming tide
Isabelle Thompson reviews Collecting the Data by Mat Riches (Red Squirrel Press, 2023)
![A collage showing a robin, some soldiers playing football, a Christmas tree, a goose, a running policeman, a pudding and curiously a copy of 'The Joy of Sex'](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Christmas-poem-320x225.jpg)
Poetry Humbug: five poems to ruin Christmas
Tim Atkins selects five Christmas poems – "gifts that really should never have been given"
![Gloria Swanson as Norma Desmond, dressed in yellow, striding forward into the projected fantasy of her come-back](https://thefridaypoem.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Hollywood-or-Holme-by-Kathryn-Gray-cover-320x225.jpg)
I have never walked a blistering dust road out from San Antonio
D.A.Prince reviews Hollywood or Home by Kathryn Gray (Seren, 2023)