I wore out my youth first, and glad I did. How would My dress be newer now If I had played safer? (from Song of the Woman of Breare, translated by Ní Chuilleanáin), 9th Century Old Irish) The cover describes Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin’s “most recent excavation of memory and examination of time (and timelessness […]) Read More
The worst injury is feeling you don’t belong so much to you – (from “VII”) In a way that sounds obtuse and slightly absurd, I felt unworthy of reviewing this collection upon my first reading. A young Scottish white man forming opinions on the effectiveness of a middle-aged Jamaican-American black woman’s writings on racism (with Read More
McCarthy Woolf’s debut poetry collection, An Aviary of Small Birds, is an elegy to her stillborn son, Otto. Avoiding sentimentality, she relives the awful time of Otto’s stillbirth, and its aftermath, treating the practicalities and profound grief with unflinching honesty and courage. “My Limbs Beat Against Glass” is a terse eight-line poem which pulls Read More
Angela Gardner’s collection The Told World can be taken to be as an acute observation of the human experience. It shifts from the almost tactile nature of one’s immersion in certain everyday moments to a quiet, almost detached meditation upon them. Welsh-born Gardner who now lives in Australia is an artist as well as a Read More
Mark Doty’s ninth poetry collection, Deep Lane, opens gloriously, with a knowing nod to Seamus Heaney: When I’m down on my knees pulling up wild mustard by the roots before it sets seed, hauling the old ferns further into the shade, I’m talking to the anvil of darkness [.] It’s a tricky collection to review, Read More
The Hotel Oneira is, indisputably, technically brilliant. August Kleinzahler demonstrates exceptional linguistic skill throughout, flitting between dialects and frequently employing words both obscure and invented. “A History of Western Music: Chaper 44 (Bebop)” appears to function purely as an exercise in capturing the rhythms of that genre: A ramp’d up dance call it cha-cha-faux-bocci CHOC-A-LATTA-CHOCK-A-LITA-CHOC-A-TIKKA-LOTTA Read More
From the outset, Chris McCabe makes it clear that In the Catacombs is not merely a research project but the fruits of a personal challenge; at its most basic, his quest is to explore the posthumous appraisal of any poet is in relation to his or her innate talent and/or popularity enjoyed while alive. Early Read More
Having already published two acclaimed chapbooks, Michael Pedersen offers a remarkable first full-length collection. From the start, it is clear that these pieces are to be performed, not merely read. Each is written in free verse, often without stanzaic limitations, and Pedersen also makes extensive use of internal rhyme and alliteration. Consider the alliterative and Read More
7 Across : Poet finds himself in the doldrums. Deny everything! (5, 7) Roddy Lumsden has done as much as anyone in modern British poetry to explore and develop form. A string of engrossing and inventive collections stretching back nearly twenty years has cemented his reputation as a singular voice, happy to work with wildly Read More
“Carnal”, “emetic”, “wilfully avant-garde”, “dizzying”, “onanistic”, “brave”…. These are but a few of the impressions that ended up scribbled in front of me as I read through [————]: Placeholder, a collection that cherry picks from the 2004-15 work of American poet Rob Halpern. In truth, this collection pummelled me: it pulled me all over the Read More