The espalier

A quiet, lyrical walk through the hidden lives of city dwellers, this collection opens with a solitary narrator listening to the steady chime of a neighbour’s clock and wondering what lies behind the thin walls that separate their worlds. The poems linger on ordinary details—a trimmed garden, a rust‑stained rail, a clock that has stopped—turning them into meditations on isolation, the passage of time, and the unspoken stories that hover just out of sight.

From the solemn hush of a London churchyard to the intimate chatter of a couple stitching a nameless bird, the verses shift between melancholy and gentle humor, all while maintaining a delicate, understated rhythm. Listeners will be drawn into the subtle interplay of everyday moments and larger questions of memory and mortality, finding comfort in the measured cadence of a voice that watches, listens, and quietly stitches the fabric of ordinary life.