Anvil Press Poetry
WelcomeFounded in 1968 by Peter Jay and now based in Greenwich, south-east London, Anvil Press is England’s longest-standing independent poetry publisher. We specialize in contemporary English poets – with a leavening of Irish and American – and in a range of translated poetry, from ancient classics to modern and contemporary poets. |
Latest news 
Ruth Mead 1921-2013
Ruth Eastaff (born in 1921, née Adrian) died on 12 April 2013 in Bonn. She and her husband Matthew Mead – Mead was a pen-name – had lived in Bad Godesberg for many years. She worked as a librarian. Together they translated many German poets, including Nelly Sachs and perhaps most notably Johannes Bobrowski. A favourite was the SDP politician and later mayor of Darmstadt, Heinz Winfried Sabais. They captured vividly the pace and movement of his poems, whether lyric, political or personal.
Poem of the month
Heinz Winfried Sabais
Shall We Meet Again
Shall we meet again
in the wordless wastes beyond us
where caravans of the dead are travelling
uncertainly towards the Oasis
Nowhere or God?
Shall I still know your name
when the body's memory
flakes cruelly away and your image
is extinguished as my
last thoughts break apart?
Shall I still keep your love
where the edge of the great shadow
strikes me and numbs the sweet unrest
What will remain once eternity's
hate melts the foolish flesh?
Who will lend us eyes for each other
in the laconic solemnity of nothing
when the wave of earthly time freezes
glassy before our feet
and no desire moves it?
Shall we meet again
in the wordless wastes beyond us
in the swaying shadows of uncertain caravans
in the Oasis Nowhere or God
deep in untimely snow?
Translated by Ruth & Matthew Mead
From The People and the Stones by Heinz Winfried Sabais
Our featured books
Nachoem M. Wijnberg: Advance Payment
Read more »
Johannes Bobrowski: Shadow Lands
Read more »
Matthew Mead: The Autumn-Born in Autumn
Read more »
Heinz Winfried Sabais: The People and the Stones
Read more »