I have a shelf of poetry books that I call ‘keepers’, collections which under no circumstance will I send to the charity shop or pass on to poetry friends, because I want to read them again and again. Ticking (Hedgehog Poetry Press, 2022), the debut collection by super-talented Ellie Rees will be going on that shelf. Ticking records a journey along the South Wales coastline, through the seasons, from past to present to future, from childhood to adulthood, and as Rees says in her ‘drop in,’ from “inside” to outside. I have seldom read a collection so effectively structured and layered with meaning.  It would take more time and space than I have available to unpick those layers, so I intend to focus on a sample of poems to give you some insight into the features of this exceptional work.

The collection is split into four sections: House, Garden…