From river to pond,
the heron steps and pauses
over a mined world.

Longbarrow Press is delighted to announce the publication of Have You Always Been Here?, a series of pamphlets by Matthew Clegg.

“Have You Always Been Here? emerged through walking with another person. My partner’s way of seeing birds, insects and overlooked details changed how I paid attention, and ultimately changed the poems themselves. The title came from my partner, inspired by a heron we encountered. It’s also a question that runs through the project itself: about attention, presence and what we fail to notice.”  Have You Always Been Here? is the collective title of three pamphlets – Eyes Front, Crystals & Dust, The Living – that developed from two years of dawn walks in Sheffield’s Rivelin Valley during the COVID-19 pandemic. The haiku, tanka, haibun and prose poems are framed by illustrations by the poet’s partner, and the pamphlets are accompanied by a set of postcards. Click here to read ‘Tzu-Jan in Post-Nature’, a short post in which Matthew Clegg introduces the project. You can also read a poem from Eyes Front here, and listen to an episode of Chris Jones’ Two-Way Poetry Podcast in which Clegg discusses the influence of the Chinese poet T’ao Ch’ien on his own work.

Have You Always Been Here? 
Three 32-page pamphlets + three postcards
£18 

UK orders (+ £2 postage)

Europe orders (+ £6.85 postage)

Rest of World orders (+ £11.50 postage)

We’ve also created a limited three-for-two offer on Matthew Clegg’s three hardback collections with Longbarrow Press: West North East, The Navigators, and Cazique. Please note that this is a UK-only offer (ends 30 September 2026). Click here for further details of the collections and to order the books.

Join us later this month for the launch of The Gleaning, the second poetry collection by Fay Musselwhite. This one-off event in central Sheffield features a collaborative performance with guest readings from Matthew Clegg, Naomi Frisby, Ray Hearne, Rob Hindle and Karl Hurst. The launch takes place upstairs at Shakespeare’s, 146-148 Gibraltar Street, Sheffield S3 8UB, Wednesday 30 September (7pm doors, 7.30pm start). Admission free, all welcome. Click here to book for this event. Click here for further information about The Gleaning.

“A cancelled book launch. Not the end of the world. What would that look like. Would we know it if we saw it. I rise to leave. My clothes are damp with sweat. I’ve scarcely moved in the last two hours.” An earlier attempt to launch The Gleaning was abandoned due to extreme heat; click here to read ‘Seven Degrees’, an account of the cancellation by Brian Lewis.