Ascension

I started this Substack in November 2024, growing out of a contemplation series we had already been sending to around 300 people on the Forest Row mailing list. A conversation with a young friend – who told me she and her friends no longer read much, preferring audio – made me wonder how these reflections might reach a wider circle. This led me to Substack, and the podcast option.

Before I had even decided whether to offer a paid option, a few people found their way to a paid subscription. Their generosity has given me the time to care for this growing community.

In May 2025, I found myself wondering whether a prose contemplation might work better as a poem. I have written some song lyrics and read poetry all my life, but this was new territory. Those of you who have been here a while have watched it evolve. I have been deeply grateful for the encouragement of Peter Howe, deputy editor of Perspectives and a poet himself. Peter and I have now invited some of the poets who write for Perspectives to contribute here – roughly one guest poet each month from May onwards.

I am fortunate to have been living with the weekly gospel readings for many years, so the motif usually finds me quickly; the real labour is always in finding the right form. I also learned early that writing a poem on Monday for Sunday publication makes for stress and thin poetry, so I now work several months ahead.

We now have 240 subscribers. Publications like this grow through personal recommendation: if a poem speaks to you, please pass it on.

A paid subscription gives you full access to the archive, occasional anthologies with notes and references, and a quarterly PDF of Perspectives.

Tom Ravetz

perspectives-magazine.co.uk