Poems for Adults
- Form Photograph (Phoenix Pamphlet Press, 1971)
- The Northern Seasons (Smith/Doorstep Books)
- Signs of Life (Morten, 1972)
- Alphabet (Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets, 1976)
- Staff Photograph (Harry Chambers/Peterloo Poets, 1976)
- Words Beyond a Cornfield (The Keepsake Press, 1979)
- Selected Poems 1972-86 (Littlewood Press, 1986)
- Woods Beyond a Cornfield: Collected Poems (Smith/Doorstep Books, 1995)
- Selected Poems (Poetry Business, 2014)
- Like Life (Shoestring Press, 2015)
Praise for Signs of Life
“What holds one’s attention from the outset in Stanley Cook’s work is the sense that for him to write poetry is a moral adventure . . .his writing shows an impressive delicacy, both of feeling and style.” Times Literary Supplement
“underivative . . . unassuming . . . authentic.” Robert Nye, The Times
“I like this book. There are plenty of memorable accuracies.” Douglas Dunn, Encounter
In the Media
Woods Beyond a Cornfield was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2014.
Picture of a Cornfield
I stop, whatever exhibition is on,
Before this part of the permanent collection, Wind it a little and shake it like a watch Beyond repair that for a moment goes again.
This is the path the farmer ploughed up When he sowed the corn, making a fool Of the signpost showing a right of way, Short-cut to the station people have trodden back.
Now at a distance their heads bob about Among the ripened, rustling, foaming ears;
The miracle they made themselves stops them drowning.
The sky is blue and the trees are fully dressed In dusty dark green leaves; wild pansies Show their faces between the stalks of corn And a rabbit panics out of the hedge.
People I know approach along the path And almost reach the point where its beaten soil, Like a trick explained, emerges from the field.
Before they speak, the walls of the gallery Fade in again, as either the pull of the city Asserts itself or I draw back in self-defence, Finding as usual nothing to fit the question How came I and the painter, whose dates are all I know of him, in the same field in a different field At the same time at a different time, Feeling the same? Was everyone once there?