The Music of the Soul’s Give and Take

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This poetry collection continues the story begun in A Square Foot of Sky: a reawakening in words and images, 2019-2021, after Anne Gruenberg's incarceration in a high-security prison in 2008 and the thirteen years she spent thereafter in psychiatric institutions and care homes.

We all want stories to end happily - and Anne's friends and family hoped she would find some peace after her Absolute Discharge in 2021. But sometimes the pattern is 'relapse and resume' rather than 'recovery and resolution'.

Anne has written these poems, with great difficulty, on her mobile phone. They have given her a lifeline and a means of communicating with the world. Many of them speak of spiritual matters and have a translucent beauty; others express deep anger, regret and grief. They shed light on her journey and her inner life.

Clare Park's remarkable photographs capture Anne's beguiling presence, her dark humour and her vulnerability. They are also 'in conversation' with the poems - images and words enhancing one other.