This is a beautiful book of poetry in Sheltandic Scots (or Sandness dialect, to be precise), with English prose translations and commentary, and accompanying black and white photographs of Shetland land- and seascapes. As Jamieson explains in his introductory note, he has developed his own orthography to capture the particular dialect, with its own dipthongs Read More
This latest collection from the engaging and accessible Fleur Adcock is an accessible and engaging collection of poems which her followers will recognise as being in her distinctively personal and colourful style. The best starting point for people new to Adcock’s work is her collected Poems 1960-2000, also published by Bloodaxe, but this book serves Read More
Parallax is an astronomical term for the apparent displacement of an object caused by a change in the point of observation. In this wide-ranging collection of the same name, short-listed for the 2013 Forward Prize, Morrissey considers from different angles how our position affects what and how we see. In several poems, Morrissey’s lens is Read More
With its placid sea and big sky, the grey and black of the cover of Eunice Buchanan’s book, As Far As I Can See, is both stark and calming. And this is as it should be, for the colour and energy are contained within; contained, yes, but bursting with the life with which Buchanan imbues Read More
Why write poetry? For the weird unemployment. For the painless headaches, that must be tapped to strike down your writing arm at the accumulated moment. (“The Instrument”) This suitably plump volume of Les Murray’s poetry, spanning five decades, came wrapped in both delight and concern. The delight is self-evident. The concern … how would I Read More
Simon Mundy’s fourth poetry collection, More for Helen of Troy, is, in many ways, a mixed bag. It ranges from vignettes of Helen of Troy in the opening ten-poem sequence to poems of landscape, personal incident and ideas. And it explores themes as varied as gender relations, war, ageing and ideals. Mundy brings a deftness Read More
The celebrated New York poet Jorie Graham has published numerous collections of verse, including Hybrids of Plants and of Ghosts, Erosion, The End of Beauty, Region of Unlikeness, Materialism, The Errancy, Swarm, and Never. Her first edition of selected poems, The Dream of the Unified Field, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1996. A sequel to Read More
The spirit of Edwin Morgan is at large in Bill Herbert. But Herbert’s new double collection also belongs in the tradition initiated by Wordsworth’s Prelude, in that it exhibits the poetic mind contemplating itself. As in the great Romantic poem, which remained unfinished, there is a sense in which Herbert’s two books of specular poetry, Read More
A.E. Stringer’s third collection, Late Breaking, can perhaps best be described as a volume of visual poetry, largely focussed as it is on descriptions of the world around him, encompassing painted landscapes, animal encounters or more general musings on aspects of popular culture. Throughout the collection, these poems remain descriptive works, disinterested in any larger Read More
save me from the demon who jumps out of the third graveyard and eats the memories of children. (“Small nervous prayer”) This dark image is perhaps typical of what Ethiopia conjures for today’s European reader. Too recent spectres of drought, famine and attendant griefs cast long shadows over a culturally rich land; its ancient wonders, Read More