Natural Presences: Selected Poems
Molly Holden was a wonderful writer in the mould of John Clare, Thomas Hardy and Edward Thomas, publishing two pamphlets and three full collections in her short life. She had a promising career ahead, but early-onset multiple sclerosis limited her mobility and her capacity to write. Yet this was also a spur to creativity, forcing her to look ever more closely at what she could see through her window – and whether portraying a favourite tree, a flock of birds or a remembered path, her illness is an unspoken presence.
Molly Holden’s was a name to watch, praised by Robert Lowell, anthologised by Philip Larkin, but it has slipped from the canon. To mark the centenary of her birth, John Greening has revisited her work and chosen a new selection, including poems from unpublished manuscripts discovered by her family. Natural Presences offers a fresh introduction to Holden’s work – it is time she was more widely recognised for the gentle power of her words.