Byssus – strong, tenaciously anchoring; the mussel’s beard, all delicate multiple fibres, with the capacity to be woven into highly desirable cloth. Jen Hadfield’s title for her first collection since the Eliot-winning Nigh-No-Place is a near-perfect metaphor for her attachment to her adopted Shetland, and for that land’s own bedrock hold. Byssus challenges with its Read More
I know you your face like a pool of leaves your long hands that way you have of speaking in many quiet, wayward tongues. Grass, rivers, vole-fur – when you fall you fall from grace into more grace and if the sun gets too close if its light blinds you hide from us, in the Read More
We shared Octoberfuls tasty with appletea under tangerine trees. I asked what he did. Ah The Royal Bank pays me, but I source old harpsichords which I restore. Some need me for years. I play them then pass them to others who love them. My passion. That’s who I am. So here’s to that man Read More
Oh Heart of the Web, Heart of Bracken, give me the strength to persevere. (“Walking the Wood”) For a reader who loves the mystery and fairy-tale quality of wild forest lands, the nature of Anna Robinson’s second collection, Into the Woods, is pure food for the creative soul. Set in imaginary woodlands in Read More
Peter Riley’s 18th poetry publication, Due North, is a poem of twelve chapters that builds a larger story with roots deeply imbued in movement. Whether it be a search for work or finding inner happiness, the poet is concerned with the restless nature of the human mind and the displacement of those who wander without Read More
“My body is a series of bodies: / now & before” writes Matthew Siegel, in “The electric body”, and there is perhaps no better way to introduce Blood Work. His collection addresses themes of the physical self primarily, dealing with illness (hospital visits, and relationships), but also features occasional portraits of a broken family. For Read More
Back cover blurbs may be accurate but they can also be misleading. Loop of Jade is described as an exploration “of a dual heritage” – Chinese and British – a “journeying back… in search of her roots”. My heart sank a little. Without diminishing the importance of such endeavours, the intervening three decades of identity Read More
physical is Andrew McMillan’s debut collection following publications of his work in numerous prestigious magazines and anthologies such as London Review of Books, Modern Poetry in Translation and The Rialto. These poems are personal and moving works, and as the title suggests, they are focused for the most part on the body – exploring its Read More
The sea has reversed its name. It will return; but for now, withdraws to its dreaming pool, and leaves things alone. All night it heeds the moon’s rhetoric, the suasive darkness heavy from above and from below. Its heart is grave and has depth and breadth to think of, remembering a time when, unpopulated, it Read More
Mona Arshi presents her debut collection Small Hands, described as “the slow detonation of grief after her brother’s death.” However, it soon becomes clear that death (and its aftermath) is only one of several themes to emerge from the book. At first, she offers such gems as “My Mother’s Hair” and “The Daughters”. Here she Read More