(Coming Soon) In Conversation: Volume I - Poetry Card Annotation Collection

Unbox a slower way to read

Our Marginalia poem card collection encapsulates our ethos. It is an invitation to converse with classic poetry. Created with intention, so that everyone can take reading from a passive habit into an active, personal experience. No literary background is required!

The story behind the collection

In Conversation With: Volume I was built by every poem earning its place.

We searched across periods, cultures, forms and traditions for writing of lasting literary quality that also gives a reader something to do: an image to examine, an idea to question, a feeling to recognise, a formal choice to notice, or a line worth returning to.

We then challenged the collection as a whole. Where too many poems occupied the same emotional or thematic territory, we looked again. Familiar names were not automatically protected; unfamiliar voices were not included for novelty alone. Each poem had to add something the others could not.

The result moves through love, grief, wonder, politics, friendship, nature, ordinary life, memory, joy and much more. We accompany poems you may already know with poems we hope you will be glad to discover.

Marginalia is designed for active reading, so do some digging - or even let time pass to come back later and see whether you still agree with yourself!

This is a collection to build a relationship with.

What's included

• 40 poem cards: A global anthology spanning from the Han Dynasty to mid-20th century, each poem is printed on an A5 card with margins designed specifically for you to leave your mark.
• Artefact cards: Historical and cultural fragments that offer contextual clues to select poems to enrich your understanding.
• Marginalia guidance: Not to be mistaken for a set of rules, this guidance is a helping hand with ideas for annotation and creative prompts to quell the fear of the blank page.
• Marginalia notebook: A companion space for expanding lingering thoughts and deep-reading notes.
• Magnetic keepsake book box: Heavyweight construction designed to store your personalised archive, with enough room to continue adding to.