When retired teacher Mary Skinner died last year at the age of 88, she was little known outside of her circle of friends in Harpenden. But a collection of her writings discovered after her death is causing something of a stir in literary circles.

Mary’s daughter, Ruth Simms, and friend Simon Bowden, who she knew through the Harpenden Writers group and Ver Poets, were going through Mary’s things shortly after her death, when they came across what turned out to be approximately 120 poems.

“I knew she’d written a few,“ says Ruth, “one or two I had actually seen before, but I had no idea there were so many. Finding them was a revelation.“

Simon adds: “I was amazed at their quality. Most of them were written when Mary was in her 70s and 80s. Many deal with simple, domestic topics such as gardening, cooking, walking the dog – but in an exceptional way.

“The poems are witty, soulful, honest – almost an object lesson in how to face the last years of life with dignity and humour and affection. And they’re a reminder that you’re never too old to get in touch with your creative side.“

Ruth and Simon decided to put together a book of Mary’s poetry, and Rocky Places is now available to buy from Waterstones in St Albans. The collection of 82 poems and an essay has won praise from the charity Poet in the City’s poet in residence John Mole, as well as from poets Katherine Gallagher and Daphne Schiller.

“We did an initial print run of 250 and they’re flying out of the door,“ says Simon. “She was so well liked and known around here, lots of local people have wanted to buy a copy.

Simon was struck by a poem that Mary had written for her neighbour, Joan, in her 90s. “Joan had a lot of poems that Mary had given her,“ he says, “and there was one Mary gave her the week she died. It’s a very dramatic poem about the death of her mother. Mary was in the States, she’d just got married, and she had a dream or a vision about her mother dying. She phoned England and heard the news that she had indeed just died. It’s a bloody brilliant poem.“

Mary had lived in Hertfordshire for more than 50 years and taught English in Townsend School in St Albans for most of her career. She died very suddenly of a massive heart attack in spring of 2012.

Reading her mother’s poetry was very special for Ruth.

“Particularly interesting for me was to read poems about her childhood,“ she says, “about her father who died from a war wound when she was only four years old, and her relationship with her widowed mother, because these were aspects of her life that she never talked about.

“Also surprising and gratifying was the discovery of poems about her visits to me in Macclesfield. One in particular, My Daughter’s House, describes the 18th Century farmhouse where I live. Finding them was a revelation.“

  • Rocky Places will be launched at a Ver Poets meeting at St Michael’s Church, St Michael’s Street, St Albans on Friday, May 17 at 8pm. There will be a reading at Waterstones, St Peter’s Street, St Albans on Thursday, June 13. Details: www.verpoets.org.uk

FEBRUARY MICHIGAN by Mary Skinner

I woke in panic in a cramped basement
Trembling – starved of air
Heard the uneven heartbeat of the boiler
Could not for moments work out
What I was doing there.
Then slowly all became familiar
I saw the white hood of snow
Hanging beyond the window pane
This was Michigan, our temporary home.
The nightmare began to let me go
But not so soon I could no longer see
My mother’s eyes aghast, white face convulsed in tears
Or still hear her voice calling in my ear.
I blurted out my dream and had no need
To beg him make the call I did not dare
It’s almost three – it will be early morning over there –
I crouched on the bed, frozen. After a long time –
It seemed forever – I heard again his footsteps on the stair
Slow, dragging, clogged, dead-heavy
Then I knew everything for sure.