This one-sentence poem seems to have a negative theme, till it ends with a subtle affirmation.

Liverpudlian Brian Patten is the poet for October 16 in the splendid new anthology, A Poem for Every Day of the Year, edited by Allie Esiri (Macmillan Children’s Books, £16.99 hardback). The poem’s litany of images charms with its randomness; it was first published in Patten’s Juggling with Gerbils (Puffin, 2000).

NOT ONLY

Not only the leaf shivering with delight

No,

Not only the morning grass shrugging off the weight of frost

No,

Not only the wings of the crane fly consumed by fire

No,

Not only steam rising from the horse’s back

No,

Not only the sound of the sunflower roaring

No,

Not only the golden spider spinning

No

Not only the cathedral window deep inside the raindrop

No,

Not only the door opening at the back of the clouds,

No,

Not only flakes of light settling like snow

No,

Not only the sky as blue and smooth as an egg

No,

Not only these things

No,

But without you none of these things.