Candlestick Press is a small, independent press publishing beautiful Instead of a card poetry pamphlets. Based in Nottingham in the UK, weve been making our mini-anthologies since 2008 and have now sold over 915,000 titles which means that weve shared over nine million poems with our readers all over the world.

Poems about art have a long and vivid history, and some of our greatest poets have tried to capture in verse the beguiling worlds of colour on canvas.Geoff Dyersremarkably wide-ranging selection encourages us to look at familiar and unfamiliar paintings and artists with fresh eyes.

We find ourselves in Vermeers studio next door to a rowdy alehouse and meet a Bonnard nude day-dreaming in her bathtub. Theres a contemplative poem capturing the calm of a Vuillard interior, and then theres life as one of Mirs dots:

So here I am, on the edge of animation,
a dream, a dance, a fantastic construction,

A childs adventure.

from I Would Like to be a Dot in a Painting by Mir by Moniza Alvi

Our pamphlets are supplied with an envelope for posting, a bookmark for a special message and an Instead of a card sticker to seal the back of the envelope for a lovely finishing touch.

Paperback | 24 printed pages