“There is a painterly aesthetic at work that carries both an elegiac sensibility reflecting on human absence and loss and a feminine sensuality that shows how ekphrastic poetry can meditate on deep and painful human experiences of connection – of love and power and longing.”

Dr. Pauline Rowe, poet

“Maria’s work is very intense – absorbed by images of religious principle, landscape, the potential of relationships, and, very particularly the relationship between language and art. Maria is a creator of amazing landscapes – emotional and topographical. ”

Bill Greenwell, Staff Tutor, The Open University

‘You cannot see her for the soft blue of the firmament…’

from Broken Lyre

…an ache in each welcoming kiss is a selection of poems predominantly written during visits to the Walker and Lady Lever galleries on Merseyside. During this period the poem Opalka was written for Tate Liverpool as part of ‘An Imagined Museum’.

Themes linked to absence and ideas around elegy developed as the work was redrafted but these poems explore more universal themes, and whilst they complement the works cited they stand as poems for today.

Available from, mariax.b@googlemail.com or from the Walker gallery or Lady Lever shop.

Email Maria at mariax.b@googlemail.com to buy a copy for £6 +postage, or purchase from The Walker and Lady Lever Art Galleries, Liverpool