Some one hundred and seventy-five original poems by Ruth Bidgood, 1966-2011, mostly typescript, some are emended and a few are in manuscript (ff. 208, 212, 214, 216-217, 219).
The majority of the poems have appeared in various periodicals, as recorded by the author on the individual folios. A few only have subsequently been published in collections, including 'Cwm Pennant' (ff. 132-133) and 'Encounters with Angels' (ff. 195-201) in Symbols of Plenty (Norwich, 2006), 'Complaints' (ff. 66-71, 187-189) and 'Bringing Home the Bride' (ff. 169-170) in Hearing Voices (Blaenau Ffestiniog, 2008), and a revised version of 'Reading a Landscape' (ff. 177-181) in Time Being (Bridgend, 2009). 'The Zombie-makers' (f. 38) and 'Brianne 1970' (f. 42) were first published in Matthew Jarvis, Ruth Bidgood (Cardiff, 2012), pp. 133-134. There are multiple copies or drafts of some poems, including 'Complaints' (ff. 66-71, 187-189), 'Summerers' (ff. 129, 152), 'Apparition' (ff. 171, 208), 'Reading a Landscape' (ff. 177-181), 'Windblow' (ff. 182, 218-219), 'Elan in Autumn' (ff. 193, 213-217) and 'Looms' (ff. 194, 210). A list of contents (for ff. 1-194) in the hand of the author is ff. i-ii; the order has subsequently been revised by her. Since the author usually disposed of typescripts once the poems had been collected, this volume includes rare examples of her work.