May Day: the new collection from one of Britain’s best-loved poets

Our summary description

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May Day gathers poems shaped by decades of attention to politics, community, and change. Drawing on memories of Glasgow activism in childhood and moving toward the present moment, the collection traces how public struggle and private life continually intersect. International solidarity, protest, and collective hope sit alongside the shock of a world halted by pandemic and the renewed urgency of Black Lives Matter.

Running through the book is a quieter, more intimate current. Poems written in the wake of the deaths of Kay’s parents reflect on grief as a force that alters everything it touches. Loss is not treated as an ending, but as a transformation, threaded with humour, tenderness, and the sustaining power of love.

Written with clarity and emotional range, May Day balances lyric reflection with political resolve. Jackie Kay writes without nostalgia or retreat, attentive to how language can hold both anger and celebration. The collection understands that change, whether personal or collective, is rarely clean or complete. What it offers instead is honesty, compassion, and a belief in the necessity of speaking, even when certainty is impossible.