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
The delight of any selected works should be variety and range. The Church of Omnivorous Light, the first volume of Wrigley’s to be published in the UK, does not disappoint. Drawn from over thirty years of poetic output, Wrigley’s voice encompasses: the natural and the social, the personal and the public, the sensual and the Read More
Paul Muldoon, winner of the Pulitzer, Griffin and TS Eliot prizes and highly acclaimed for his many poetry collections, including Quoof (1983) and Moy Sand and Gravel (2002), has returned to poetry’s lyrical roots with the publication of The Word On The Street. Written to be set to music, many of these rock lyrics have been recorded by the Princeton Read More
Seven sections, each with seven poems, and each poem composed of seven couplets – sounds like an incantation? It isn’t. This is the formal structure of Damian Walford Davies’ new poetry collection, enticingly entitled, Witch. The witch hunt is chronicled in seven sections, each voiced in the first person by a single persona, except the third Read More
Beautifully woven narratives, coloured by the traditions and folklore of the poet’s native Trinidad and Tobago, form Fawzia Kane’s debut collection, Tantie Diablesse; theycombine to create an extremely engaging read. While her poetry contains autobiographical elements, Kane does not permit these moments to overpower the collection, thus allowing the poetry to achieve a sense of Read More
The first poem in Frederick Seidel’s latest collection,Nice Weather, is “Night”. The objective yet disconnected tone of this poem prepares the reader for what follows. Blunt, stoical and in some cases cynical, Seidel rarely embellishes his imagery; instead he simply tells it as it is, as straightforwardly as if he were reading from a list: The Read More
When Kevin Higgins takes great delight in informing us that he “moved like Kevin Keegan” in his new football boots, instantly, the reader expects that the poetry to follow will be a realist description of the life, love and tribulations of the aforementioned author and his experience of growing up. And all of this is Read More
Grahame Davies (Seren, 2012); pbk, £8.99 In Grahame Davies’ collection, Lightning Beneath The Sea, the final poem, “Doorway”, ends with the line, “Come on”, you said, “There’s plenty more to see.” The same can be said for Davies’ poems. Curious, reflective and often introspective, his poems introduce the different people we may encounter in a Read More
Maria Jastrzębska (Waterloo Press, 2013);pbk: £10.00. It is well known that our senses create our most vivid recollections: familiar smells, images and objects bring back memories just as if they are present in the here and now. In At The Library of Memories, Maria Jastrzębska takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of her personal Read More
Leslie Bell (Mica Press,2012), Pbk, £8.00 Leslie Bell has lived in Britain, Europe and America and has worked in a wide and unrelated spectrum of jobs ranging from building work to systems programming to autism support. In light of his background, it is not surprising that Bell’s first collection of poetry is entitled Archipelagos. Written Read More