Work - Sublime Lungs

Sublime Lungs 

From Two Rivers Press published in April 2026. 

What they are saying about Sublime Lungs

If one measure of a poet's line is their breath, then you'd expect a poet with asthma to be a little curtailed by it. Not so Kate Noakes. Sublime Lungs finds poem after poem
burgeoning out of the condition and leading her to find no trace of Keats in Rome, but allegories in witchcraft, Kent marsh frogs or Blade Runner, and to have a double-edged
view of nature, which for her can be kill or cure. Whether in Machu Picchu or Boston Library, referencing Charles Olson in Gloucester, or relating to lovers and children, Noakes
starts from the breath in her lungs and takes off into air.   Matthew Caley

 From Egyptian breath cures to Katherine Mansfield's inhaler to the thin air of the Rocky Mountains and Machu Picchu, Kate Noakes' latest collection evokes all the elements of a life lived with asthma. With each successive poem, Sublime Lungs expands the scope of how this condition affects one's experience of the world in poems by turns witty and moving. This is poetry that attunes us to the nuances of our own embodiment.   Carrie Etter

Reviews

Sheenagh Pugh - Personal blog 

    '[the poems] enable the reader to see the world from an unusual and though-provoking angle.'  

Sally Long - Allegro Poetry Magazine 

    'Noakes’ collection explores the link [between poetry and breathing] in a fresh and interesting way.'

Launches and Readings:

April 2026

14th - Cheltenham Poetry Festival - 7pm

21st - Bristol Launch - Heron Books, Clifton, Bristol - 6pm

23rd - Riverhouse Barn - Walton on Thames - 7.30pm

26th - West Wilts radio - monthly poetry show will feature me as the guest reader

May 2026

6th- Crafty Crows - Online

17th - Reading Launch - Four Bears Books, Caversham - 4pm

18th - London Launch - The Devereux  - 7pm with MC/reader Jill Abram, and guest readers Michelle Penn and Cath Drake

19th - Raise the Bar - The Orchard Cafe, St. Georges, Bristol - 7.30pm

21st - Explore - York - Online

24th - Disruptive Verse - Kit Form, Bristol - 7pm

29th - Silver Street - St. Andrew's Church, Bristol - 12.30pm

June 2026

4th - More Song - Bradford

7th - Yes We Can't - Online - 7.30pm

14th - Buzzwords - Cheltenham

18th - Pure and Good and Right  - The Treehouse Bookshop - Kenilworth 7.30 for 8pm 

25th - South Downs Poetry Festival - The Assembly Rooms  - Chichester 7.30pm

July 2026

10th - Cellar Bards - Cardigan

31st - Chemistry - Leeds

August 2026

6th- Fire River poets - Online

September 2026

3rd - Utter! - Luton

8th - Lumen - London - 7pm 

28th - Verbose - King's Arms, Salford - 7.30pm

October 2026

5th - Fountain Poets - Wells

29th - East Bristol Books - 7pm