With My Lips Pressed to the Ear of the Earth is a pamphlet full of secrets, whispered stories and confessions. Things that are buried deep frequently bubble up to the surface. As the title suggests this is a pamphlet with a strong eco-theme and the poems tackle serious issues, but never in a solemn way. These are inviting poems that delight in the strange and the surreal. The off-kilter approach can catch us off-guard at times, making us think in new ways about nature and our own relationship to it. These are poems with long roots, inhabiting the present world of Airbnb, Pizza Express and Heat magazine while also delving deep into a twisted pastoralism, stalked by the ghosts of John Barleycorn and Robin Goodfellow along with resurrectionist mushroom men and women trapped in wells. Emma Simon, poet First collection Shapeshifter out with Salt in 2023; The Odds, winner of the Poetry Business Competition 2020; Dragonish, the Emma Press 2017.