Still Life by Rebecca Bilkau

With their idiomatic and conversational voice, Rebecca Bilkau's poems on mortality and grief look the inevitable in the eye and manage a celebration of life even as it accommodates death. Her language is lively and engaging as she considers loss, retrieval, survival and simple speculation with compassion, wit and a grounded wisdom. “In this sharply-focused sequence of vignettes, Death is omnipresent, in all its guises, from respectful guest to startling intruder. Consequently, this is a collection that reaches out its hand to loss, sadness, anger, and acceptance. Ultimately, though, what it eloquently reminds us, is that the Dance of Death is also the Dance of Life.” Oz Hardwick A previous Manchester Cathedral's International Interfaith Poet of the Year Rebecca Bilkau was also co-winner of the Lancaster Litfest initiative Walking in Circles. She is managing editor of Beautiful Dragons Collaborations, publishing themed anthologies where established voices encourage new poets into print. Her own poetry has been published by Oversteps Press and Wayleave Press and several magazines, as well as forming the libretto for the cantata A Blessed Round. She divides her time between Arnside, Cumbria and Wolfenbüttel, Germany.