Two questions I will die with:
Did you call any place home?
If not, what drew you on:
the seasons’ slow turning
or that faint itch of the horizon?

Longbarrow Press is delighted to announce the publication of Sapo, a new collection by Rob Hindle.

Sapo is Spanish for ‘toad’; in parts of Latin America, ‘sly / slippery’, also ‘informer’; in Portuguese, ‘soap’. Origins include Old English sāp  (amber, resin, unguent), Latin sēbum (tallow, grease). Cognate with Old French sapient (wise) from Latin sapere. Saber is a Spanish verb, meaning ‘to know / understand’.

The sliding, unsettled or ‘slippery’ meanings and etymologies of a single word – sapo – point to ways in which poems and poetry work. The poems in this collection – written and developed over more than a decade – resound with calls and ‘siren notes’ which, like those of the birds that feature throughout the book, are strange and familiar, settled and contingent. The Covid pandemic (and the earlier plague in Eyam) sunders and coheres communities, just as the bombing of Gernika did, or the inequality in Blake’s Songs; stick houses are less secure and more hospitable than stone ones. Ancient and modern venturers travel into unknown territories in order to know the new only as other versions of the old; poetry resists and embraces form, echo, meaning.

A beautifully produced 96-page hardback, Sapo is available now from Longbarrow Press. You can read an extract from the book here, and order it by clicking on the relevant PayPal link below (major debit cards accepted – no PayPal account required).

Sapo
£14

UK orders (+ £2.50 postage)

Europe orders (+ £5.95 postage)

Rest of World orders (+ £9 postage)

Join us for the launch of Sapo upstairs at Shakespeare’s, 146-148 Gibraltar Street, Sheffield S3 8UB on Monday 12 December (doors 7.30pm; event starts 8pm). Admission free, all welcome.

The last day to order books for Christmas delivery (to UK addresses) is Sunday 18 December (if you’re in Sheffield, it’s Wednesday 21 December, as we’ll be delivering these orders on foot). We can gift-wrap your orders and/or send them to a different UK address at no extra cost; simply email Brian Lewis at longbarrowpress@gmail.com with the details. We also offer Longbarrow Gift Certificates (ideal for those last-minute presents); click here for details.